Allons-y Impossible Girl
by LyliLovexxxxx
Summary: Rose doesn't want to travel with the Doctor after he regenerates, so he takes to going around alone until he meets one of Clara's echo's in a bar one night. She becomes his companion and they go on the adventures together, but it seems there may be more to Clara Oswald then even she realises.
1. Impossible Girl

**Allon-sy Impossible Girl**

_Rose doesn't want to travel with the Doctor after he regenerates, so he takes to going around alone until he meets one of Clara's echo's in a bar one night. She becomes his companion and they go on the adventures together, but it seems there may be more to Clara Oswald then even she realises._

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 1

The Doctor wandered through the streets of London late at night, looking around at all the people recovering from the Sycorax attack two days ago. Christmas. The Christmas he lost Rose, because she didn't want him after he regenerated. He was too different, and personally he didn't blame her. To her it would have been only a few hours but to him it had been years. A century of just wondering around. He was lonely. He still missed Rose, he was sure that he had been falling in love with her. He hadn't found anyone to travel with him. No one who made him so happy. He wasn't sure what made him come back to this night. it was a bit random.

He didn't really know where he was going, but he found himself standing outside a bar. Figuring he had nowhere else to be he went in. It was very busy but he managed to get a spare bar stool. After a while, a girl came over to serve him. It took a while and as he waited a thing on the television the Doctors eye. It was a report on how a scientist had tested the stuff falling from the sky and confirmed that it was anything but snow.

"Nutters, the lot of them" the bar girl commented, setting the drink down in front of him and noticing him watching the news.

"Who?" He asked her, picking up his drink.

"Them who fired those missiles, I mean those alien things were leaving, they didn't have to kill them" she said as she began to clean some glasses.

"I agree" the Doctor nodded in approval "Harriet Jones had no right to do that"

"That was her?" the girl asked her eyes widening. The Doctor's brow furrowed. He was sure that those big brown doe eyes of her flashed gold for a minute there. "I thought she was half decant"

This girl was familiar. Achingly familiar. She was pretty, the Doctor observed, with long brown hair that was curled at the ends and long eyelashes. She was short and slim and the nose was funny in a cute way. Everything about her screamed familiar at him but he couldn't quite place her.

"Sorry have we met before?" the Doctor asked after a few moments "Only you seem kind of familiar."

The bar girl stared at him for a few moments before shaking her head with a cute smile saying "Nope, I'd remember a handsome face like yours"

"Right" the Doctor said looking down at his drink.

"You all right?" she asked with what seemed like genuine concern.

"Yeah" he said with a slight laugh "I'm all right"

"Really, cuz I've been bar tending since I was a teenager and I know when a guy isn't alright" she said. The Doctor smiled slightly.

He sighed heavily "I changed, and my friend… well she didn't want to travel with me anymore"

"I'm sorry" she said "If it helps, I think she's mad running away from a guy like you"

"Thank you" he said, downing the rest of his drink. She wandered off to serve a few costumers nearby leaving him alone again.

He tried to figure out where he'd seen her before. he cast his mind back, but the only thing he seemed to find was this odd sensation that came with looking at her. it was almost like... guilt. Guilt and gratitude.

She came back a few hours later, wiping down the bar and looked at him in mild surprise. "You still here?"

"Well, I got nowhere to be" he said "Can I get another one?" he nudged the empty glass towards her. She raised her eyebrows and refilled it.

"So, where exactly did you and your friend travel?" she asked "What sort of places did you see, what sort of people did you meet?"

He watched her eyes shine at the thought. "I take it you've never travelled, but would like to" he deducted from her enthusiasm.

"No," she sighed "All I ever wanted to do was travel, but you don't get anywhere on a barmaids salary" she gestured around her at the shabby pub.

"Don't you want more?" he enquired "How old are you, 20?"

"24" she corrected with a slight blush. "And course I want more, I just have no way of getting it. I was going to go and see it all, after university, but then… well I had to cancel."

The Doctor studied her. She was charming, witty and beautiful. She made him smile. He still missed Rose, and he didn't want this girl to replace her but still…

"You could come with me" he offered. He wasn't entirely sure what made him say it, but it would be nice to have someone to ask questions and he was now highly curious to discover what was so familiar about this girl.

"Really?" She looked like she wanted to believe him but couldn't bring herself to. "You'd take a girl who you only just met?"

"Of course, how do you think this works?" he grinned and she grinned back before laughing.

"What?"

"Does this really work?"

"Yes, shouldn't it?"

"So you just crook your finger and girls run away with you to god knows where. I don't even know who you are. You could be anyone." she said. Deep down she knew that wasn't true, this man didn't need any kind of explanation for her.

"I'm the Doctor"

"Doctor Who?"

"Just the Doctor" he said "And you are?"

"The Impossible Girl" the bar girl said with a cheeky smile.

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	2. Clara or Oswin

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 2

The Doctor walked around the back of the pub to where he'd parked the TARDIS. The bar girl followed him with an apprehensive look on her face. It was very late, her shift had finished around midnight and she didn't have a jacket for some reason. She wore a tight black v-neck t-shirt and ripped black skinny jeans with red chucks on her feet and she looked like any other bar girl.

"What?" he asked as she looked around suspiciously.

"Well, you aren't going to murder me or something are you?" she asked sceptically as he put the key in the lock "What's that?"

"This is my time machine!" he said, pushing the door open. The girl stayed where she was, smirking at him with raised eyebrows.

"No way am I getting in there with you?" she said.

"Why not?" the Doctor asked bewildered.

"Because it's tiny!" she said. "What is it, some kind of snogbox?"

"Oi, she is not a snogbox" he said angrily and the girl started to laugh. The look on his face was too much for her. Slowly, the Doctor started to smile at the delightful sound of her laughter. "Just…" he stepped away from the door "Go inside. Go inside and I promise your life will never be the same again."

Maybe it was that strange, earnest look on his face, or just the way he said it, but she moved forwards and gently pushed on the door. Apprehensively she stepped into the console room and the lights flickered on. She froze.

It was…

Impossible!

She back up out of the door with wide eyes. The Doctor grinned as she did the traditional circuit of the TARDIS, checking it was normal sized and had four walls and all that. Then she came back to the front and stuck her head in again, just to check she hadn't imagined it.

"Its…" she looked at the Doctor in astonishment "Bigger on the inside!"

"Yep!" he grinned at her and she grinned back. He led the way into the TARDIS and said "It's called a TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

"It's a time machine!" she practically shouted. He nodded.

"Where…" she was so stunned she couldn't speak. "Where did you get one of these?"

"I borrowed it" the Doctor said "Ran away in her to see the stars"

"Its… I… This is just…. Wow!" she spun around trying to look at everything at once. The Doctor laughed at her. "So this is your ship?" she asked, leaning on the console.

"Yes"

"And it can go anywhere?" she asked, her face hopeful.

"In all of time and space" he promised with a smile. "I can take you to every star in the universe, every moment in history"

"Its... incredible!" she breathed.

He grinned at her from across the console. Then he frowned slightly. "So, Impossible Girl, do you have a name?"

"I do" she said.

When she didn't say anything he added, "Well, what is it?"

"What's your name?" the girl asked "Doctor… that can't just be it"

"Well it is. Now please?" he said, his face twisting in a strange smile.

She didn't say anything at first, then sighed and said "Clara. Clara Oswald. People call me Oswin though."

"Clara." The Doctor tried it out on his tongue. It was pretty, and suited her perfectly. "Oswin." It was nice, but didn't seem quite right.

"Yeah. Long story really, I've not been Clara in years." She said and something flickered across her eyes. It was gone a moment later though.

"Well, any objections to being Clara again?" he asked.

She sighed. It usually bugged her when people wanted to call her Clara, but somehow she didn't feel the usual stab when this Doctor said her real name. She smiled and shook her head. "You really want to take me with you?" she asked hopefully, biting her lip. Even though she knew she should, she didn't have any trouble believing this man when he told her it was a time machine.

"Of course" the Doctor grinned "It's not much fun travelling alone. I've seen a lot of it already, and the best part is showing someone else it all"

"Alright then, I'm in!" she grinned. He jumped up and grinned.

"Really? You don't worry about your family or nothing like that?" he asked, feeling he better cover that now before he got too excited. Clara snorted.

"I don't do family. The pub will live without me and my other part time job is hardly demanding Anyway, didn't you say this was a time machine?" she raised an eyebrow and he grinned again. It was amazing, how after so many miserable years without Rose this girl could make him smile so much in one night. He wasn't letting her replace her, but still...

"Alright then, off we go!" the wheezing sound started up and the centre column of the console began to move up and down. "Allons-y! Oo, I like that, I should say that more often!"

Clara laughed, he flipped the switches and took off into the time vortex with his new companion.

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	3. New Earth

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who **

Chapter 3

"So my ship travels anywhere in all of time and space!" the Doctor shouted, flipping switches, pressing buttons and whacking things with his hammer. Clara watched him in fascination, trying to get over the bigger on the inside thing and beginning to question her sanity. "I can take you to the future, to the past, to alien planets" the Doctor grinned "So Clara Oswald, where do you wanna go, what do you wanna see"

Clara was ready to answer when he asked her that, and she was suddenly hit with an overwhelming sensation of de-ja-vu. Like he'd asked her that question before. The edges of her vision began to swarm and it was almost as if the console room was turning a silver colour. She shook her head and took a deep breath, forcing the feeling away. The Doctor didn't seem to notice anything had happened so she laughed and said "Um… well…"

"How about two in one?" the Doctor suggested "I'll take you to a planet in the future!" he raised his eyebrows and she laughed.

"You're the expert" she said with a shrug. The ride was a bit bumpy, the floor swaying and rocking, but it was a rather nice sensation. Finally a loud, wheezing, grating sound filled their ears and they came to a stop.

"Where are we?" she asked in a hushed voice, looking at the doors. The Doctor grinned.

"Let's take a look" he said, pulling on his long coat and leading the way out of the doors. Clara hesitated for a millisecond before following.

They were on a space of grass, with a large city rising up above the ocean in front of them. The tall buildings were impressive and beautiful, silver and fading into the bright sky. Clara's hair blew in the wind as she stared around her, completely astounded.

"I'm- I'm-"Clara was so amazed she could barely string too words together. "This is definitely not…" she watched the spaceship things swoop over her head towards the city. "This can't be… my world"

The Doctor laughed. "That's because it isn't. It's the year five billion and twenty three. We're in the galaxy M87, and this? This is New Earth."

Clara spun around so fast her ponytail began to wrap around her neck. "It's just..." she pushed it back over her shoulder "It's incredible. Different ground beneath my feet, different sky, and different air, new sounds…and what's that smell?"

"Apple grass" the Doctor informed her, loving her reaction. She laughed out loud in delight.

"Just fantastic!" she announced.

They walked a little way off, unaware of the small robot following. The Doctor lay on his back and took one arm out his coat so Clara could lie on it. She pulled her hair loose and lay down next to him, running her fingers through the grass.

"So, the year five billion, the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted." The Doctor explained to her as they gazed up at the sky. He felt a pang as he thought back to him and Rose on the observation deck. "So anyway, planet gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, spread out across the stars. Soon as the Earth burns up, oh yeah, they get all nostalgic, big revival movement, but then find this place. Same size as the Earth, same air, same orbit. Lovely. Call goes out, the humans move in."

"What's the city called?" asked Clara.

"New New York." He said promptly. She turned her head to look at him and raised her dark eyebrows.

"Oh, come on."

"It is." He insisted "It's the city of New New York. Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original, so that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. What?" he asked as Clara started to laugh at him. "What?"

"Nothing" she said, still laughing. "You're just… Its nothing." They settled into a comfortable silence for a while. In the end Clara asked "Can we go and visit New New York then, see what becomes of the human race in the future?"

"Well, I thought we might go there first." He pointed at an elegant pair of curved skyscrapers standing apart from the city on their side of the water.

"Why, what is it?" Clara asked

"Some sort of hospital. Green moon on the side. That's the universal symbol for hospitals. I got this. A message on the psychic paper." He held out a blank sheet of paper in a worn wallet. The words _Ward 26 Please Come _appeared on it.

"What on Earth is that?" Clara asked, silently wondering how much more weird she could take before her head exploded.

"Oh right, sorry, you're new to this" the Doctor said "Its psychic paper. Let's anyone see what I want them too."

"That's handy" Clara commented "So do you always travel through the universe with a purpose?"

"Well" the Doctor pondered this for a brief moment. She didn't seem to mind that he'd brought her here for his own reasons. In fact, Clara was just thrilled to be standing on a different planet."Someone wants to see me at any rate"

"Come on, then." Clara said, jumping to her feet. "Let's go."

The hospital lobby was massive and white, with a mixture of ordinary visitors and what Clara assumed were nurses dressed in long white robes.

"I don't like hospitals. They give me the creeps." The Doctor stated as they came in through the big glass doors.

"The Pleasure Gardens will now take visitors carrying green or blue identification cards for the next fifteen minutes. Visitors are reminded that cuttings from the gardens are not permitted." The tannoy announced.

"Very smart. Not exactly NHS." Clara said, looking around her. The Doctor wasn't really listening.

"No shop. I like the little shop." He muttered. Clara rolled her eyes.

"You know, wouldn't they have found a cure for everything by now?" she asked him.

"The human race moves on, but so do the viruses. It's an ongoing war." He replied knowledgeably. Clara nodded in understanding and began to look around again. Her eyes landed on the nurses and only then did she realise that along with acting like nuns, they had furry faces and whiskers.

"They're cats." She murmured, unable to take her eyes off them.

"Now, don't stare." He scolded gently "Think what you look like to them, all white and brown." Then he'd lost interest and was back to complaining "That's where I'd put the shop. Right there." He wondered away from Clara, who was still shocked to a standstill, and stepped into a lift.

"Ward 26, thanks!" he said with a smile and the doors closed just as Clara jogged towards him.

"There's another lift, I'll catch you up!" Clara yelled through the metal.

"Ok!" the Doctor yelled back "Ward 26, watch out for the disinfectant"

"The what?" she muttered as she stepped into the lift and said hesitantly "Ward 26 please"

The disinfectant turned out to be a process that involved soaking her, blasting her and then blasting her with hot air. Needless to say she was very clean when she stepped out of the lift. The corridor she ended up in didn't look like a hospital ward. It was narrow, filthy and grey with junk and wire all over the floor.

"Okay…" she said to herself "Doctor" she called out hopefully. She didn't get a reply so she turned to get back in the lift when something came out of the shadows. She looked at it, wrinkling her nose slightly. It was small and white with weird pattern patches on his skin and wide eyes.

"Human child is clean" he said in a strange Irish accent "You will come this way"

Clara raised her eyebrows at him, but followed him anyway. He led her to a strange room lit with florescent lights. What looked disturbingly like a human brain bubbled in a tank attached to some kind of system and piece of what she assumed was skin was stretched inside a metal frame with two eyes and red lips.

"Err…" Clara was starting to think nothing would surprise her.

"Welcome pure-blood human" the skin said. Clara looked around her.

"Ok um what are you?" she asked. She knew this was a hospital from the far future but this seemed like some sick form of life support.

"I am the last human in existence" she answered with a pitiful air of importance. Clara felt a dull twang of familiarity at those words, buried deep inside her mind.

"Yeah, I dunno wear you've been in the last five billion years but there's a whole planet of them out there" Clara said taking a step back.

"Mutants!" shrieked the skin making Clara wince. "Moisturise me, moisturise me" The strange creature scuttled towards her and sprayed her with something.

"If you say so" she said "but they look more human than you do." As she said this a distant voice echoed around her brain. _You're just skin Cassandra, Lipstick and skin. _She didn't recognise it, yet at the same time she did. Her vision started to go funny at the edge again, this time her seeing an observation deck with this skin thing and a blonde woman talking. Clara shook her voice and murmured "Cassandra"

"How do you know my name?" she snapped and Clara was momentarily confused. Then she shrugged.

"Lucky guess" she suggested "I'm going, either way"

However as she stepped away she was surrounded by a machine, everything sparked into life and then a purple light whooshed out of Cassandra into Clara. Her body collapsed, and Clara felt her mind being forced out of the way.

"Mistress!" Chip ran to Clara's body and helped her up.

"Moisturise me" the CassClara being said, and then caught sight of herself in the glass. She touched the ends of her tousled brown hair and then stroked her cheek. "Well it could have been worse. She's a bit one colour" she stared down at the black clothes "Pretty I suppose, but funny nose and - Dear Lord! - She's tiny! How could anyone cope with being this short?"

"Mistress is beautiful" Chip said breathlessly.

"Yes, well I suppose so" CassClara said, twisting both ways "And I do like these curves and her _eyes. _They're enormous!"

Once she had analysed every inch of Clara's body CassClara turned to the now dead machine that held Cassandra's brain. "Oh, the brain lead expired. My old mistress is dead" said Chip in a woeful voice.

"Ah but I'm safely tucked away in here" CassClara tapped her temple with a long red painted fingernail. "With the human child buried."

"Who was she?" Chip asked "How did a pure-blood human come from the city?"

"Her name is…" CassClara paused then said "Clara Oswald. But she'd not from the city no she comes from far away. She travelled here with…" her look of concentration immediately became one of rage. "It's him!" she hissed "That man… he's the Doctor!"

Her expression once again became thoughtful. "Hmm… he is expecting her in ward 26. I must find out what the sisterhood is doing. Well, let's take her for a test ride" CassClara said before strolling towards the lift.

* * *

The Doctor had only known Clara Oswald for a few hours. He knew her name, she was a barmaid, and that she was 24 years old but that was about it. He couldn't really comment on her personality, but he still thought she was acting strange. She gave too good suggestions, seemed too well informed and not at all phased by the futuristic illnesses he showed her. He was fairly sure something was wrong when they discovered grown flesh with every single disease and illness and the girl who had so far come across as incredibly human, remained unmoved, uncaring.

So he resolved to go out on a hunch and hope for the best. He demanded the sisterhood cat nuns to tell him what they had done to her, hoping they might reveal that something had happened to her. He was pretty pleased with himself when Clara then said "Oh, all right, clever clogs. Smarty pants. Lady-killer!"

"Ah-hah so there is something wrong with you, sorry, her!" the Doctor yelled pointing an accusing finger. Clara looked shocked.

"You mean…" Cassandra was lost, Clara's memories were locked too tight to provide helpful information.

"Please," the Doctor snorted, adjusting his tie which Cassandra had been playing with "I hardly know this girl at all, completely guessing there. But trust me she is a completely innocent human girl so whatever is controlling her, whatever is inside her I want it out because as far as I know she never did anything to hurt anyone. Now what's happened?" he demanded.

"I knew the sisterhood were up to something but I wanted a pure human body and then by ideal chance your mind to find it out" Clara said, putting one hand on her hip and flicking her hair.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked, recognising the voice.

"The last human!" CassClara announced with that same air of importance she had earlier.

"Cassandra" the Doctor groaned.

"Wake up and smell the perfume!" she smiled before spraying something in his face. He fell to the floor and the nurse knelt beside him.

"What have you done?" she cried in despair "I have to fetch the matron"

"Yes that's right" CassClara said as Chip scuttled up behind her "Call for Matron, sound the alarm" then she yanked the power cable open and set off the alarms.

* * *

The first thing Clara was aware of was a massive relief of pressure on her head. It was like a enormous weight had been pressing down on her brain and then it had been let up. She doubled over and pressed a hand to her head. When she looked up she was still in the basement room but all the equipment was dead and the Doctor was there. However he was acting a bit weird.

"Oh, my. This is different." He said in a strange voice.

"Doctor?" Clara asked, giving him a questioning look. He ignored her.

"Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts. And hardly used. Oh, oh, two hearts! Oh, baby, I'm beating out a samba!" he made strange jerkish movements and thus Clara concluded that the Doctor was probably suffering from the same thing that had caused her banging headache. She briefly remembered the purple light coming from the skin towards her.

"Er, Cassandra wasn't it? Were you inside my head!"

"Oo, he's slim, and a little bit foxy." This CassDoctor was ignoring her again. Then she abruptly and said "You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it."

Clara looked at her, opening her mouth to retort. However at that moment a crowd of disgusting looking people with grey tunics and horrible skin stumbled into the room, there arms outstretched.

"What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor, what the hell would he do?" the CassDoctor yelled, completely panicking. Clara looked at her in disbelief. How was she supposed to know?

"I've only just met him!" Clara snapped. She looked around for an escape, her eyes landing on a metal ladder behind them. "Ladder. We've got to get up." she said, stepping towards it. The CassDoctor grabbed her and shoved her aside snarling

"Out of the way, shortie!"

"What the hell are we supposed to do?" Clara asked as she climbed up the ladder. She was glad that she was fast since the Doctor was a foot taller than her (which was easy when she stood at barely five foot) and his legs could cover several more rungs then hers could.

"I don't know do I, but I certainly don't want to be infected by every disease in the galaxy!" CassDoctor snapped.

"Fabulous" Clara muttered and then the Matron grabbed a hold of her ankle. "Oi get off me!"

While the Matron ranted on about the sisterhood's life's work being ruined CassDoctor had reached the top of the ladder but the shuttle wouldn't open. Clara watched in horror as one of the infected people grabbed the Matron's ankle and she became one of them. As the diseases infected her she let go of Clara and the ladder. She fell, screaming.

"Cassandra!" she yelled desperately as the infected gained on them "Go into me, and prey the Doctor's got a better idea!"

"You asked for it!" CassDoctor said rolling his eyes. The purple light issued from him and towards her again. The pressure built in her head, and everything went black.

"Oh brilliant, short city. Open it!" CassClara said as she took over Clara's form.

"Not until you let her go!" the Doctor yelled angrily "She is an innocent human girl, and you're compressing her to death!"

"She's useless, we need you!" Cassandra snapped.

"I order you to leave her!"

Clara felt the pressure release again a few moments later and the CassDoctor said "No matter how difficult the situation, there is no need to shout!"

"Cassandra, get out of him!" Clara ordered "He's a hell of a lot more useful than me!"

"How do you know, you've only just met him!" CassDoctor argued, mainly to be annoying.

"He has a time machine, I am a barmaid now let him go!" Clara screamed, coming right up next to him since the flesh was coming closer.

"Whenever I'm in you he starts on the whole, you're an innocent human thing and won't do anything" CassDoctor complained. Clara rolled her eyes.

"I can't do anything!" she said, gazing imploringly into the Doctor's eyes. CassDoctor groaned.

"I can't believe I'm doing this" he said and then the purple light swooped passed Clara and into the first infected human. "Urgh, I'm disgusting!" she crowed.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and opened the shuttle, climbing through and yanking Clara up after him.

"Ah nice to see you again, sorry about her" he said, helping her stumble through the door as it began to close.

"Oh no you don't!" Cassandra shrieked. The purple light just made it through the door and slammed into Clara's back, knocking her over.

"That was your last warning Cassandra!" the Doctor shouted. CassClara sat up with a vacant look in her eye.

"Inside her head. They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives and they've never been touched." She murmured. The Doctor looked down at her, and then finally reached out his hand to help her up.

* * *

Later, once all the diseased were cured, the Doctor and the CassClara walked through the hospital as the New New York Police Department arrested the sisterhood.

"The Face of Boe!" the Doctor suddenly remembered and he jogged down ward 26 to the last patient left, a large alien head in a tank. "You were supposed to be dying." He said with a smile.

"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait." The voice echoed inside their heads, the face's lips not moving.

"Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face." CassClara moaned.

"Shh!"

"I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew." The face said.

"There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old." The Doctor said with a wry smile.

"There are? That would be impossible. Only one of us is truly impossible" The face said. His eyes drifted to CassClara for a moment, but the Doctor thought nothing of it.

"Wouldn't it just." The Doctor agreed, ignoring his last comment "I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me."

"A great secret."

"So the legend says."

"It can wait." The face said indifferently.

"Oh, does it have to?" the Doctor whined. The face chuckled slightly.

"We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day" he said, then he beamed away from the hospital in light blue atoms.

"That is enigmatic." The Doctor said appreciatively "That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic." Then he stood and turned to CassClara "And now for you."

"But everything's happy. Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me?" she said bitterly.

"You've lived long enough. Leave that body and end it, Cassandra." The Doctor said sternly. Then CassClara held a hand to her face and began to cry.

"I don't want to die." She sobbed.

"No one does."

"Help me." She begged

"I can't." he replied, slightly gentler.

"Mistress!" an eager voice broke their exchange and Chip scampered up to them.

"Oh, you're alive." CassClara said, mildly surprised but pleased none the less.

"I kept myself safe for you, mistress." He informed them adoringly. CassClara considered this, then looked at him in hungry intrest.

"A body. And not just that, a volunteer." She decided.

"Don't you dare. He's got a life of his own." The Doctor warned her but Chip turned to glare at him.

"But I worship the mistress." He said determinedly as CassClara winked at him "I welcome her."

"You can't, Cassandra, you-" the Doctor began but it was too late. The life force rushed from Clara's body into Chip's. Clara immediately collapsed but the Doctor caught her.

"Oh! You all right?" he asked in concern. She nodded and started to get up only to fall again. "Whoa! Okay?"

"Yeah." Clara nodded, steadying herself. Then she noticed the Doctor was still holding her. She sighed, then grinned and said "Hello!"

"Hello." The Doctor grinned back "Welcome back."

"Oh, sweet Lord. I'm a walking doodle." CassChip's voice interrupted them, the Irish accent gone.

"You can't stay in there. I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair." The Doctor said angrily. Then he calmed a bit and said "I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done."

"Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time." CassChip said in a matter of fact way "Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last" her final word was strained as he (or she, it wasn't quite clear which) fell to her knees. Clara immediately rushed to his side, concern bright in her eyes.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked gently.

"I'm fine. I'm dying, but that's fine." CassChip looked up at him and nodded, her voice calm.

"I can take you to the city."

"No, you won't." it was neither an order nor a request "Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me anymore. You're right, Doctor. It's time to die, and that's good." She looked at him for reassurance.

The Doctor nodded. "Come on. There's one last thing I can do." He said, and they helped him to his feet.

* * *

He took her back to a night where she was human and beautiful. Cassandra told herself she was beautiful, and died in her own arms. The Doctor and Clara looked on, before leaving.

Once they were back in the TARDIS, the Doctor flew them into the time-vortex before finally speaking.

"So, there you go. First trip in the TARDIS!" he forced a smile "Sorry you didn't really experience much of it yourself." Clara smiled fleetingly and he continued "So, do you want to keep going, or do you want to go home?"

There was a pause. Finally she asked "Is it always like that?"

"Like what?" he asked, although he knew what she meant.

"So amazing. So thrilling. So dangerous." She prompted. "I watched that matron get infected with every disease in the universe, and then fall to her death. And I couldn't help her, because catching her would've infected me as well." The Doctor watched her as she spoke, not smiling or interrupting. "Then you saved them. You found a way to save them all, instead of killing them. So is it always like this? You lose some lives but you try and save what you can?"

"Yes." The Doctor said. "History… some things have to happen. Some people are fixed points in time, and saving them could change the future. I can show you history, but we can't save everyone."

A silence fell over them. Clara stared at him, and he stared back, neither of them blinking or looking away.

"OK then" she said quietly. "Then we keep going"

The Doctor grinned. "Really?"

"Really." She nodded, and then held up her hand as he opened his mouth. "But first, I'm exhausted. I was bar tending all night before this, and it has been a very long day."

The Doctor scowled. "You humans and your sleep" he sighed "Alright then, bedrooms third door on your left down that corridor, wardrobes around the corner"

"Great!" Clara grinned. Then she launched forward and gave the Doctor a hug. He was slightly taken aback at first, but it was nice and made him smile. "And when I'm up" Clara said as she headed out of the console, "I want to see some stars!"

**Please Review!**


	4. Tooth and Claw

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 4

Clara announced her presence in the console room that morning by saying "I don't think your snogbox likes me"

The Doctor looked up from the console to see her frowning at him. "Well she's never going to like you if you keep calling her that" he scolded "What's she done now?"

Clara had been traveling with the Doctor for a few weeks now, and in that time the TARDIS had played a series of mean tricks on her, including switching her bedroom and the swimming pool when she was in the bathroom and hiding her toothbrush every other night.

"She hid my clothes and all the towels while I was in the shower and then dropped the temperature in the corridor to freezing. I'm only glad she didn't move my bedroom!" Clara complained.

"Ah well, she's only messing around" the Doctor said fondly, stroking the console. "C'mon" he said when he noticed Clara was sulking "I'll take you somewhere in history you want to visit. You've not been to the past yet!"

This cheered Clara up considerably. "Can we visit Victorian London?" she asked with a smile and the Doctor grinned.

"Your wish is my command!" he said, steering the TARDIS through the time vortex. Clara laughed.

"You can't go into Victorian London dressed like that, go find a dress from the wardrobe!" the Doctor told her indicating to her jeans and t-shirt, so Clara went back down the corridor. Thankfully the wardrobe was where it should be and she climbed up to the rack of Victorian style dresses. After shifting through them for a while she found a dress a sort of blue colour, the long darker skirt ruffled with a lighter sort of jacket on top. She looked at it, and had a strange feeling she'd owned it before. But that was ridiculous; she had never seen a Victorian dress in her life. She fiddled around with it until she figured out how exactly to get it on and again was sure she had worn it before.

"Where did you get this?" Clara asked the TARDIS, but it only groaned in return.

Finally she had it on properly; although it was quite tight and buttoned around her neck she did like it. She found a pair of heeled black lace up boots that seemed appropriate and pulled them on. Clara had thanked her stars that she had learned to run in high heels when she was 16, since they ended up doing a lot of it with the Doctor and she hated being so much shorter then him. She was having quite a lot of fun braiding her hair in a complex way even though she didn't recall learning how to do it, when the Doctor poked his head through the door and said "Are you ready yet?"

"Yeah, coming" Clara told him, and resolved to leave the last part of the braid loose rather than pinning it up like it should be done. The two went to the console room, the Doctor telling her all about the interesting things that happened in 1879.

"Come on then!" he said enthusiastically, pulling on his coat and hurtling out the TARDIS doors. However he did not find himself in the streets of Victorian London as he expected, but in a wide open country space. The sound of rifles slid the smile off his face and he raised his hand, looking round at the men in redcoats surrounding them with there guns aimed. Clara raised her hands as well.

"You will explain your presence." The man on a horse demanded in a Scottish accent. Upon hearing it the Doctor looked delighted.

"Are we in Scotland?" he asked gleefully in a flawless Scottish accent. Clara would have thought he was native.

"How can you be ignorant of that?" the man asked.

"Oh, I'm, I'm dazed and confused. We've been walking over hill and over dale. Isn't that right?" he looked at Clara and nodded.

She didn't think she could do an accent half as convincing so she resolved to speak in more proper voice then usual saying "Quite. For hours and hours." The Doctor grinned at her and she raised her eyebrows.

"Will you identify yourself, sir?" the man asked, his gun still aimed at them.

"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon, from the township of Balamory." The Doctor said with very little hesitation "I have my credentials, if I may." He gestured down at his pocket and when the man nodded pulled out his psychic paper "As you can see," he continued "a Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Doctor Bell himself."

"Let them approach." An upper-class English voice came from the carriage at his words.

"I don't think that's wise, ma'am." The man on the horse said, eyeing the Doctor and Clara wearily.

"Let them approach." The voice repeated once more and the man sighed.

"You will approach the carriage, and show all due deference." He instructed them sternly and the Doctor walked past him, saluting him in acknowledgment. As they approached the carriage a footman opened the door. There, sitting only a few feet away from her was a woman Clara had learned about all through school, read about in a hundred history books and seen in portraits and very old photographs. Queen Victoria, the Imperial Widow herself.

"Clara," The Doctor said with a smile "might I introduce her Majesty Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith."

"Clara Oswald, Ma'am." She said politely with a curtsy. Victoria nodded at her and then turned to the Doctor.

"But you, Doctor. Show me these credentials." She said with interest. He handed her the psychic paper wordlessly and her eyes swept over it quickly.

"Why didn't you say so immediately?" she cried "It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my Protector."

"Does it?" The Doctor asked, thrown for a moment "Yes, it does. Good. Good. Then let me ask - why is Your Majesty travelling by road when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?" he said with a frowned.

"A tree on the line."

"An accident?"

"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." Victoria said importantly. Then she darkened slight and said "Everything around me tends to be planned."

"An assassination attempt?" the Doctor asked her.

"People want to kill you?" Clara asked, her brow creased in confusion. She hated history at school so despite having read about Victoria, she hadn't read too carefully.

"I'm quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun." Victoria said, almost cheerfully.

"Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence. We've sent word ahead. He'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Balmoral tomorrow." The man on a horse explained.

"This Doctor and his…" she tried to come up with a term to describe Clara. She eventually settled with "companion, will come with us."

"Yes, Ma'am. We'd better get moving - it's almost nightfall." The Redcoat said.

"Indeed. And there are stories of wolves in these parts. Fanciful tales intended to scare the children. But good for the blood, I think." She smiled at the thought before calling "Drive on!"

The carriage began to move on and Clara and the Doctor fell into step behind.

"So, how many times has someone tried to kill her?" Clara asked him, back in her normal voice.

"1879? She's had, oh, six attempts on her life?" he told her, also dropping the accent. Then he grinned. "And I'll tell you something else. We just met Queen Victoria!"

"I know" Clara all but squealed "And this is your life! You can meet the most amazing people in history at the flip of a switch!"

"Yeah well," the Doctor threw his arm casually over her shoulder "It's your life as well now"

* * *

They travelled to an old house called the Torchwood estate. A man called Sir Robert greeted them, although he almost tried to turn them away. Clara did not care for his silent, bald, imposing staff, but said nothing. He showed them the observatory where a large telescope proved to be completely useless when it came to stargazing.

Later that night they all sat around the dinner table when the Doctor brought up the story of the wolf that had been mentioned earlier.

"Come, sir. You promised us a tale of nightmares." He said to Sir Robert. The man looked quite uncomfortable, but he could hardly refuse when Victoria joined in.

"Indeed. Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction." She said. Everyone turned to her, not quite sure what to say. Eventually Clara broke the silence.

"You must miss him." She said softly. The queen's gaze landed on her, not exactly offended but unreadable.

"Very much. Oh, completely." She almost choked "And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, that's just for children, but the hope of some contact with the great beyond. We all want some message from that place. It's the Creator's greatest mystery that we're allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent, and we must wait." She seemed distant, but then composed herself. "Come. Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters."

Robert sighed. "The story goes back three hundred years. Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. The next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and devoured."

The Captain didn't seem quite as taken by the story as the others and was happily digging into his food. "Tales like this just disguise the work of thieves. Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that." He said brashly.

"But sometimes a child goes missing." Robert said in a slightly agitated way "Once in a generation, a boy will vanish from his homestead."

"Are there descriptions of the creature?" the Doctor asked in interest.

"Oh, yes, Doctor. Drawings and woodcarvings. And it's not merely a wolf. It's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal." Robert's voice was soft, and there was fear behind it.

"You mean a werewolf?" Clara asked as the Doctor leaned forward in excitement. The full moon hung in the blacksky outside and the silver light shone eerily around the dimly lit dining room.

"My father didn't treat it as a story. He said it was fact. He even claimed to have communed with the beast, to have learned its purpose. I should have listened. His work was hindered. He made enemies. There's a monastery in the Glen of Saint Catherine. The Brethren opposed my father's investigations." Robert now spoke quickly, the tension building in his words.

Silently, the butler went to the window to the moonlight shone upon his face and began to chant "Lupus deus est" again and again. The Doctor had his back to him, but Clara frowned at his actions. Victoria seemed unphased.

"Perhaps they thought his work ungodly." She suggested lightly.

"That's what I thought. But now I wonder. What if they had a different reason for wanting the story kept quiet? What if they turned from God and worshipped the wolf?" Robert said.

"And what if they were with us right now?" Clara whispered, her voice shaking and the proper way of speaking forgotten.

Everyone turned to the butler who did not react to them at all. The Captain pulled out his revolver and aimed it.

"What is the meaning of this?" Victoria demanded.

"Explain yourself, Sir Robert!" the Captain shouted.

"What's happening?"

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, they've got my wife." Robert sounded truly apologetic.

"Where are they!" the Doctor yelled, his accent also lost in the panic "Sir Robert, Clara come on!"

They raced from the room and down toward the cellars, Sir Robert leading the way and the Doctor and Clara running fast behind them. They kicked down the door to reveal a terrified group of people chained to the wall, cowering away from a large wolf that stood in the broken remains of a cage.

"Oh, that's beautiful." The Doctor said in admiraion, taking a step towards the creature.

"Come on, go. Get out!" Sir Robert yelled and Clara snatched the sonic screwdriver from the Doctor's hand, grateful he'd told her the setting for breaking chains last week.

The werewolf broke out of the cage a that point and the Doctor returned to his senses screaming "Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" at the shell-shocked women.

The wolf howled at the moon and threw a piece of wood at the Doctor, who ducked out the door and soniced it.

Clara watched as the steward handed out guns to the men while the Doctor soniced the shackles off the Lady's maids. The Lady Isobel herself was already free and crying in the arms of her husband.

"I can't leave you. What will you do?" she said desperately, and Clara briefly wondered if she could ever love someone that much to get that look in her eye.

"I must defend her Majesty. Now, don't think of me, just go." Sir Robert instructed, although Clara could see his heart breaking behind his eyes. Isobel seemed to accept this because she turned to her maids.

"All of you, at my side. Come on!" she ran off in the direction of the kitchens and Clara turned to the Doctor.

"What is it? Is it an alien?" she asked, determined not to show how terrified she really was.

"It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths. Did it say what it wanted?" he asked the steward who was preparing the guns.

"The Queen, the Crown, the throne - you name it." He grunted, more focused on killing the wolf rather than finding out about it.

There was a very sudden loud crash at the other end of the passage way. The Doctor sprinted down that way to see the wolf coming through towards them having broken down a wooden door. He sprinted back the other way and grabbed Clara, hauling her out of the way.

"Fire! Fire!" the Steward shouted, firing the guns. There were several loud crashed and a lot of smoke. When it had cleared and everything was quiet again the Doctor came forward.

"All right, you men. We should retreat upstairs. Come with me." He said, turning to leave.

"I'll not retreat. The battle's done. There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault." The steward gloated, heading towards where he thought the body of the beast lay.

"I'm telling you, come upstairs!" the Doctor shouted.

"Listen to him" Clara pleaded. The steward ignored her, only turned back to face the Doctor.

"And I'm telling you, sir, I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." He said. He stepped into the corridor and looked back. "It must have crawled away to die" he laughed just before something hoisted him towards the ceiling. Clara gasped in horror as the sounds of snarling and meat ripping was heard

"There's nothing we can do!" the Doctor said, and lead them all upstairs. In the dark hall Sir Robert began to franticly search for Victoria.

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty!" he shouted. She appeared at the top of the stairs and began to hurry down them.

"Sir Robert? What's happening?" she asked in a slightly shaken but none the less calm voice. "I heard such terrible noises." She

"Your Majesty, we've got to get out. But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?" Sir Robert said quickly.

"Captain Reynolds disposed of him." Victoria informed them.

"The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut." The Doctor said before turning to the Queen with an interesting look on his face "Pardon me, Your Majesty. You'll have to leg it out of a window."

They went through into the drawing room where Robert scooted around the Queen saying "Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first, the better to assist Her Majesty's egress."

"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh." Victoria said, quite out of breath.

"Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" the Doctor shouted at them. Robert opened the window and prepared to climb out but the monks outside began to fire their guns. There was a scramble to close the glass.

"I reckon the monkey boys want us to stay inside." The Doctor mused.

"Do they know who I am?" Victoria asked in outrage.

"Begging your pardon your Majesty but I think that's the point" Clara told her, chewing her lip nervously and bobbing slightly in curtsy.

"What do you mean?"

"Well" the Doctor turned to stare at her "It bites you, then a wolf controls the empire"

"Stop this talk. There can't be an actual wolf." No sooner had the words left her mouth a vicious howl sounded throughout the house. They all stepping into the corridor to see the beast attempting to break down a door.

"Run?" Clara whispered the suggestion, her heart in her throat.

"Got any silver bullets?" the Doctor asked casually, his eyes fixed on the wolf.

"As it so happens I don't!" Clara muttered, trying to locate her legs.

"Then let's go with your idea. Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigorous jog." He said to Victoria, demonstrating slightly "Good for the health. Come on!" They took off up the stairs, Clara really wishing her skirt was shorter and the Queen puffing along in front of her.

The wolf smashed its way through the house and onto the staircase before it started to follow them. They ran all the way to the library corridor, the wolf gaining on them and just as it was about to pounce a shot rang out and Reynolds stood in the way, the beast retreating.

"I'll take this position and hold it. You keep moving, for God's sake! Your Majesty, I went to look for the property and it was taken. The chest was empty." He said, reloading his gun and gesturing for them to move on.

"I have it. It's safe." Victoria assured him with her hand to her heart.

"Then remove yourself, Ma'am. Doctor, you stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert, you're a traitor to the crown." For a horrible moment Clara thought he was going to shoot Sir Robert but he just turned and aimed his gun in the direction of the beast.

"Bullets can't stop it!" the Doctor shouted angrily.

"They'll buy you time. Now run!" Reynolds ordered. Victoria, Sir Robert and the Doctor rushed into the library but Clara stayed outside it with her eyes fixed on the Captain. He was ready to die for his Queen. She watched as the wolf pounced on him and tore him to pieces.

"Clara!" the Doctor grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into the room.

"Barricade the door!" Robert yelled and the piled chairs and other items against it. They all became very still and quiet.

"Wait a minute. Shush, shush, wait a minute." The Doctor said, pressing his ear against the door. There was one lonely howl and then silence.

"It's stopped." The Doctor whispered in shock. He heard the wolf sniff at the door before slowly padding away "It's gone!"

"Listen" whispered Clara. There were footsteps and growls from the other side of the walls as the wolf walked around the room.

"Is this the only door?" the Doctor asked urgently, glancing all around him.

"Yes. No!" Sir Robert said expertly, and they quickly barricaded the second door. The noises continued outside the room, but the wolf didn't try to break in as it had all the other rooms.

"Is something stopping it?" Clara asked, carefully approaching the door.

"Something inside this room." The Doctor nodded "What is it? Why can't it get in?" he murmured.

"You're the expert" Clara said. Now that they were out of immediate danger she could feel her legs about to give out and gripped a nearby table, determined not to fall over "we just saw a werewolf!" she said faintly.

"We did" he grinned before going over to check her out. "Are you alright" he put his hands on her shoulders and steadied her.

"I will be" Clara promised. Victoria watched the exchange with wide eyes, only turning away when Sir Robert spoke to her.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. It's all my fault. I should have sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?"

"Only a little bit" Clara muttered.

"What, exactly, I pray tell me, someone, please. What exactly is that creature?" Victoria demanded.

"You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's a more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform." The Doctor said.

"And should I trust two? You who change your voices so easily? What happened to your accent? Why is she now so…common?"

Clara looked offended and the Doctor realised he'd slipped up. he rubbed the back of his head saying "Oh right, sorry, that's…"

"I'll not have it. No, sir. Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world." Victoria insisted with fierce determination.

Both the Doctor and Clara exchanged looks, before something on the door caught Clara's eye.

"Whats that?" she asked, pointing to it. The Doctor ran up to take a closer look.

**"**Mistletoe. Sir Robert, did you father put that there?" he asked, examining it intently.

"I don't know. I suppose." Sir Robert seemed past caring.

"On the other door, too. No, a carving wouldn't be enough. I wonder." The Doctor, who's mind was four steps ahead of everyone else as usual leaned across and licked the wood. Clara pulled face."Viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe. It's been worked into the wood like a varnish. How clever was your dad? I love him. Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."

"And the monks trained the wolf to react to it?" Clara guessed, thinking it was unlikely it was simply allergic.

"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, Doctor, and we still don't possess an actual weapon." Robert said, interrupting their discovery.

"Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?" the Doctor said bluntly. Clara cleared her throat to point out he was being rude but he only grinned at her, walking over to the bookshelf.

"You want weapons?" he asked "We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world." He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and sliding them on his nose "This room's the greatest arsenal we could have." He reached behind him and pulled a few thick, heavy volumes off the shelf, throwing them to Clara with the instruction "Arm yourself"

So they began to go through the books as fast as they could, looking for anything that could help them. They went through biology, zoology, books on mistletoe, books on magic, forms of explosives, science and history. Finally they found a story on something falling to earth and the Doctor decided that was the wolf.

Then the Queen produced a large diamond, the Koh-I-Noor and explained how Prince Albert was always said it was not quite right, cutting it down again and again. In the end the Doctor's head nearly exploded as he connected everything. Albert had seen the trap and set another one inside it for the wolf. Then the wolf in question came crashing through the ceiling and they were running again. Lady Isobel delayed it by throwing mistletoe on it but they ran to the observatory and Clara watched Sir Robert gave his life to give them time to stop the wolf. The Doctor took the diamond and he and Clara began to shift the telescope while her Majesty held up her cross and preyed.

"I thought it didn't work!" Clara yelled over the crashing outside the door.

"It doesn't not as a telescope but as a light chamber!" the Doctor said "We power it up with moonlight and stop the wolf with the diamond." With one final push the telescope was in place just as the wolf burst in. It towered over the Queen, ready to bite her and start the empire of the wolf, but the Doctor threw the diamond in the path and drowned it in moonlight. It hung in the air, its arms outstretched until the Doctor made the light brighter and it vanished with a final howl.

* * *

Clara had had a very long day. After a lot of running and a lot of people dying she was ready to go and collapse on her bed in the TARDIS. Getting knighted by Queen Victoria was pretty awesome, being banished by her not so much and then they had to ride all the way back to the TARDIS on a wooden cart. The Doctor chattered on about the Royal family being werewolves and she laughed along even though her mind was somewhere else.

She watched Captain Reynolds and Sir Robert die to save their queen and country. They must have been scared, but still so brave and selfless to give up their own lives in order to save someone else's. Clara didn't think there was anyone in the world she would die to save. Then she looked at the Doctor, marvelling in his own brilliance and knows that if anything seriously tried to kill him, she would give her life so his could go on. In a heartbeat.

And the thought terrified her.

**Please Review!**


	5. School Reunion

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 5

Clara felt quite uncomfortable as she entered the school canteen. Teenagers dressed in the same ugly grey uniform and strangely behaved teachers swarmed around making a lot of noise. They'd been at this secondary school for two days looking for anything suspicious since the Doctor had received an email from a friend of his ("Well, he wasn't really a friend") claiming there was something dodgy about the place. The Doctor was posing as a physics teacher, slipping a winning lottery ticket through the current teacher's door and causing her to run off on holiday. Then he'd suggested Clara pose as a dinner lady which was shot down immediately with her saying "No way am I serving chips to a load of rowdy kids along with a load of grumpy old women!" In the end she decided to apply for an assistant receptionist job, which she got immediately since the school was short of staff, even though it had plenty of teachers and dinner ladies.

It could have been a lot worse, she mostly just sent emails, answered the phone and she got to drink coffee and sit in a comfy chair. Also, with access to the school computers she quickly discovered that a few months ago when the new headmaster had arrived half the teachers and the entire kitchen staff was replaced, compulsory school dinners were introduced and the results immediately went up. It all seemed strange, yet the Doctor didn't think too much of it saying it was unlikely, yet still plausible.

Clara spotted him sitting at an empty table with a tray of school lunch in front of him and made her way across the noisy room, her white heals clicking on the varnished floor.

"Ok, so I admit I thought Micky was being dumb when he called us here-" the Doctor started as she sat down.

"If you thought that why'd you come?" Clara interrupted incredulously, nicking a few of his chips. He glared at her before continueing.

"But - and it pains me to say this - he was right. Boy in class this morning, got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth."

"Why's that?" Clara asked, pinching a few more chips. Apparently this was more interesting then aliens.

"You like these?" he asked her with a look of disgust "They're weird!"

"I love them!" Clara said, pulling the plate towards her "Been living off burnt soufflés in the TARDIS"

"Don't make them, that way you won't burn them" the Doctor reasoned but she wasn't listening to he changed the subject. "It's very well behaved, this place. I thought there'd be happy slapping hoodies. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones. Huh? Huh? Oh, yeah. Don't tell me I don't fit in!"

Clara had to laugh at this.

* * *

They sat in the staffroom with the teachers Clara claimed hadn't been replaced when the Headmaster joined. She stood next to the photocopier, pretending to work while the Doctor chatted with another teacher about the children's intelligence.

"Yesterday, I had a twelve year old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy in cubits." He claimed when the Doctor told him of Milo.

"And, it's ever since the new headmaster arrived?"

"Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot, except for the teacher you replaced, and that was just plain weird, her winning the lottery like that."

"How's that weird?" Clara smirked, eyebrows raised at the Doctor. She had told him people would think it strange.

"She never played. Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight." The teacher said bewildered before walking off to talk to someone else. Clara approached the Doctor and leaned against him casually while poking him in the side. He smirked down at her and said

"Hmm. The world is very strange."

They were engaged in a silent staring contest when Finch himself entered followed by a woman with brown hair who was hardly old, yet not quite so young. When the Doctor saw her, he momentarily forgot the petite brunette leaning against him, and was lost in memories of the past and wonder of seeing her again.

"Excuse me, colleagues. A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak. Don't spare my blushes." Finch announced to them all before leaving them all. Looking around her, Sarah Jane's eyes landing on the Doctor who was still staring at her.

"Hello." She said, coming up to him and Clara who stepped aside slightly to look more professional.

"Oh, I should think so." The Doctor grinned in delight, earning a questioning look from both women.

"And, you two are?" she asked, looking between Clara and him.

"Hm? Er, Smith. John Smith." The Doctor finally managed to collect himself but was unable to stop smiling. Clara wondered if there was something wrong with him.

It took her one look at Sarah Jane for her to decide she didn't like her at all. She wasn't quite sure why, she'd heard the woman say about five words but still it didn't stop her from scowling like a child. It didn't matter because once she heard the Doctor's fake name she was lost in her own memories.

"John Smith. I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name." she said, mainly to herself rather than either of them.

"Well, it's a very common name." the Doctor shrugged, his smile getting sort of creepy by now.

"He was a very uncommon man." Sarah Jane remained lost in her thoughts for a few more moments before coming back to earth and saying "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you. Yes, very nice. More than nice. Brilliant." The Doctor grinned, shaking her hand with far more enthusiasm than seemed necessary. It wasn't improving Clara's mood.

"Er, so, er, have you worked here long?" Sarah Jane asked, stepping closer and lowering her voice.

"No. Er, it's only my second day."

"Oh, you're new, then. So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum? So many children getting ill. Doesn't that strike you as odd?" she was in full reporter mode that made the Doctor's smile wider if that was even possible.

"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile." Clara got there before him, and both he and Sarah Jane were slightly taken aback by her cold tone of voice.

"Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here." She said lightly before moving away.

"No. Good for you." The Doctor murmured "Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith."

"What?" Clara sapped irritably "Who is she?"

"Hmm?" the Doctor said as he moved away, not listening to her at all. Clara huffed and stormed away, leaving him to figure out what he did wrong.

She was in a better mood when they snuck into the school that night. The Doctor went off to inspect Finch's office and she went off to snoop around the kitchens and the maths department. She tried the kitchens first where she found this strange oil. It smelt suspiciously like the chips so she took a sample of it before heading up to the maths department. There she found a cupboard full of vacuum packed rats so she took one and put it in the pocket of her black leather jacket. Then she jogged back to the Doctor feeling very accomplished only to have her good mood evaporate when she saw that reporter woman with the Doctor.

"Oh you" she said bitterly. The Doctor apparently didn't notice her rudeness

"Clara, Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane, Clara" he said, breathless and excited.

"Hi. Nice to meet you." Sarah Jane said sarcastically before turning to the Doctor and saying hottly "You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger."

"Assistant?" Clara asked, thoroughly offended. Sarah Jane raised her eyebrows and the Doctor thought it wise not to say _she's older then she looks. _

"What did you find?" he asked instead. Clara pulled two things out of her pocket.

"Oil and vacuum packed rat!" she announced, shoving them into his hands without looking at him.

"Nice" he smiled at her and she softened slightly. Of course this woman had to ruin it.

"What's special about rats?" she asked.

"I dunno," the Doctor said, examining it closely "Let's go check Mr Finch's office."

As they walked Clara and Sarah Jane pushed in front of him. "So who exactly are you?" Clara asked bluntly.

"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor." She replied like that should settle the matter.

"Really? He's never mentioned you." Clara said slightly smugly, even though it didn't change anything in her mind.

"Oh, I must've done. Sarah Jane. Mention her all the time." The Doctor said bemused, although his case wasn't very convincing.

"Not since I've been with you" Clara said, not bothering to point out that she'd only been with him a few months.

"What, not even once? He didn't mention me even once?" Sarah Jane asked in disbelief. Thankfully for the Doctor they'd reached Finch's office and he could sonic the lock open. They slowly eased the door open and looked up at the ceiling where a group of large, pink, leathery bat creatures hung upside down.

"Those rats are food" Clara concluded softly. The Doctor nodded, then shut the door quietly before the three of them raced from the school. Out in the car park Sarah asked "Were those the teachers?"

The Doctor nodded and turned to Clara asking "When Finch arrived, he brought with him what?"

"Seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen. Thirteen big bat people." Clara said promptly "Now what?"

"To the TARDIS!" the Doctor announced, starting back towards the school "I've got to analyse that oil from the kitchen."

"I might be able to help you there. I've got something to show you." Sarah Jane said, her eyes alight with excitement. She led them over to a very battered car and opened the boot to reveal an even more battered metal dog. Clara thought it looked like trash at first but the Doctor seemed delighted.

"K9!" he cried "Clara Oswald, allow me to introduce K9. Well, K9 Mark Three to be precise."

Clara wrinkled her nose and leaned in closer asking "Why does he look so… disco?"

"Oi! Listen, in the year five thousand, this was cutting edge. What's happened to him?" he asked, looking to Sarah Jane who was apparently as confused as him.

"Oh, one day, he just, nothing." She said helpfully.

"Well, didn't you try and get him repaired?"

"Well, it's not like getting parts for a Mini Metro" Sarah Jane said defensively "Beside, the technology inside him could rewrite human science. I couldn't show him to anyone."

"Ooh, what's the nasty lady done to you, eh?" the Doctor asked in a silly voice, scratching the tin as if it were a real dog.

"Can we go inside, we're busy" Clara moaned, getting quite sick of this display. The Doctor agreed to go to a nearby coffee shop but he took K9 in with him. Clara went up to the counter to get a coffee so Sarah Jane and the Doctor sat at a table with K9 between them while the Doctor attempted to mend him.

"I thought of you on Christmas Day. This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead. I thought, oh yeah, bet he's up there." Sarah Jane said softly as the Doctor soniced the wires.

"Right on top of it, yeah." The Doctor said, hardly looking up.

"And Clara?" Sarah Jane asked lightly, trying not to let on how bothered she was by the girl. The Doctor seemed to freeze at this question.

"No" he said finally "I- I met her a few days later. Well, few days for her, few years for me"

"Oh" was all Sarah Jane said. It seemed like she was going to drop it before she asked "Are you sure?"

"What do you mean? Of course I'm sure" the Doctor wasn't sure whether to laugh or frown.

"Well, I can't help feel like I know her" she said, a distant look in her eye. "I'm sure I've seen her before, but not in a long time…" she trailed off and then another thought struck her "Did I do something wrong, because you never came back for me. You just dumped me."

"I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed." The Doctor said vaguely, his mind on how he also thought he saw Clara before he met her.

"I waited for you. I missed you." Sarah Jane said shortly.

"Oh, you didn't need me. You were getting on with your life." He said like that was far more important than trips across the universe.

"You were my life." Was all she said. A silence followed until she finally sighed and said "You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?"

"All those things you saw, do you want me to apologise for that?" he asked her in confusion.

"No, but we get a taste of that splendour and then we have to go back." She explained, but she knew he could never really understand.

"Look at you, you're investigating. You found that school. You're doing what we always did." He smiled, unimaginably proud.

"You could have come back." She told him.

"I couldn't." he said firmly.

"Why not?" she demanded, but she had travelled with him long enough to know he wouldn't answer her. He just continued working on K9. "It wasn't Croydon." She eventually said. When he looked at her in confusion she explained "Where you dropped me off, that wasn't Croydon."

"Where was it?"

"Aberdeen."

"Right. That's next to Croydon, isn't it?" he asked her, almost hopeful. She just smiled and shook her head, and he knew he was somewhat forgiven. Then K9 sparked into life and he cried "Oh, hey. Now we're in business."

"Master." The dog said in a stiff, electric voice.

"He recognises me." The Doctor was obviously very pleased and Clara came over to see the tin dog in action.

"Affirmative." The dog replied. The doctor held his hand towards Clara, barely glancing at her.

"Clara, give us the oil." He said and she placed it hiss his hand, frowning at him and the dog. The Doctor smeared some on the end of a sort of probe sticking out of K9's head.

"Oil. Ex ex ex extract. Ana ana analysing." K9 said with some difficultly. After a few tense moments he said "Confirmation of analysis. Substance is Krillitane Oil."

"They're Krillitanes." The Doctor said, his eyes wide.

"Is that bad?" Clara asked, hating being out of the loop.

"Very. Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad." The Doctor said in all seriousness.

"And what are Krillitanes?" Sarah Jane asked.

"They're a composite race." The Doctor sighed at haaving to explain. He looked at Clara and said "Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by. You've got bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever. The Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognise them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks."

"They want the children" Clara realised "they need the children" the Doctor nodded and ran a hand through his hair.

* * *

The next morning the three of them walked into school with the kids, the Doctor giving instructions.

"Clara and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this." He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and Clara held out her hand for it, only he gave it to Sarah Jane.

"What're you going to do?" she asked bitterly.

"It's time I had a word with Mister Finch." The Doctor said, before striding away to the school. Clara and Sarah Jane followed, neither saying a word as they headed to the computer lab. When they got there Clara sat down on the table and became very interested in her fingernails while Sarah knelt beside the monitor and attempted to get it working.

"It's not working." She complained after the sixteenth try and whacking it against her hand. Clara jumped down from the desk and plucked it out her hand without a word. She didn't even look, only pressed a button and pointed it towards the computer. It started up straight away and she knelt down, needing to see it for the next bit.

"Who are you?" Sarah Jane asked "And what did I ever do to you? Are you jealous? Because trust me I have no interest in picking up where we left off"

Clara sighed and said nothing, for a while Sarah Jane thought she wasn't going to answer. In all honesty Clara wasn't sure of the answer.

"I don't have any objection to other companions of his. I wouldn't want him to ever be alone" she said slowly, standing up as she spoke. "But yes, I am jealous. Not nessacarily because he likes you and all that, but…. I dunno" Clara sighed and held a hand to her temple.

"Right" Sarah Jane said with a nod. The explanation hadn't been all that helpful but she decided it was better than nothing. They didn't speak anymore and the Doctor came in a while later and started to do a better job of finding out what was in the hard drives.

* * *

Clara retired to her room after another exciting near death experience which involved the Doctor blowing up the school and quite effectively killing the Krillitane and K9. The Doctor was waiting for Sarah Jane, which Clara had decided she didn't want to hang around for.

She was annoyed. Really annoyed and confused.

Not by the fact she felt sorrow at the death of a tin dog she'd known for five minutes.

Not by the fact she had somewhat started to figure out the Skasis Paradigm before she felt her head start to ache.

No, she was bothered by the fact she was jealous of Sarah Jane Smith.

She wasn't jealous of the fact she was once the Doctor's companion, he needed them or she didn't know where he'd been. No it was more like she was bothered that she had become a companion. That the Doctor had chosen take her along. Not because of whom she was, but just that he simply had. It seemed ridiculous.

Clara sighed and lay down on the bed, rubbing her temples. She'd always suffered from migraines when she was younger. Her mum had tried everything, but nothing could help. She just waited for them to pass.

It wasn't fair really. She never got sick; the headaches were the worst thing she'd ever come down with and even those were rare. Now traveling with the Doctor, no matter how exhilarating or brilliant it was she often got the feeling she had watched it happen before. But that was impossible; she was experiencing it so she couldn't have done it before. Then whenever she tried to figure it out, think it through she'd get a headache.

Clara sighed. There had been points in her life that she thought nothing made sense, but there was always a plausible explanation. Now that she was traveling with the Doctor, she wasn't sure what was what though.

She went back to the console room a while later but stopped outside when she heard voices.

"You could come with us" the Doctor said and Clara groaned inwardly. She thought she'd go mad having to put up with the constant headache that came with trying to figure out why she hated Sarah Jane.

"No" Sarah Jane answered after a while "I can't do this anymore. I have to get on with my life. Besides…" she paused "You already have her."

The Doctor didn't say anything for a moment. Then finally he said softly "Yeah, I do."

"She's special, hold onto her" Sarah Jane advised with a smile in her voice. Clara felt her head spin with confusion. She didn't think Sarah Jane liked her anymore then she did her. The Doctor seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Hmm, I know I'm just surprised you… I mean you and her…" he was struggling now but Sarah Jane only laughed.

"I don't have to like her to see the way she looks at you" Sarah Jane said "Or the way you look at her. How long have you known her?"

"Only a few months" the Doctor said, but Clara knew he wouldn't meet her eyes on that one. He was as confused as her on the knowing each other one. When they met and how long they had known each other sometimes seemed like two completely different things.

"Well, keep going. Some things are worth getting your heart broken over" Sarah Jane said and Clara shivered slightly. It was almost as if she knew she was listening, because she couldn't see anyway that sentence would apply to the Doctor.

"I will, I'm sorry" the Doctor said sincerely "I don't know what it was. She's usually so kind, so warm"

"I'm sure she is" Sarah Jane said.

"You see, I had this girl with me… Rose… that was her name" Clara heard the stab in the Doctors voice. "I thought when she left me I'd never want anyone else or even feel…" he didn't finish but Clara knew what he meant. It was clear in his eyes every day. She's never considered how long she would travel with him. But it was his next words that first made her consider staying forever. "But then I met Clara"

**Please Review!**


	6. Deep Breath Clara

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor who**

Chapter 6

Clara stepped out the TARDIS in a large silver room of what she was guessing was a spaceship. The Doctor followed her out and immediately wondered off in the direction of the console while she looked around her. The place was silent and kinda trashed.

"Spaceship?" she asked and when no reply came she just went with that "Where is everyone?"

"Nah, nothing here. Well, nothing dangerous. Well, not that dangerous. You know what, I'll just have a quick scan, in case there's anything dangerous." The Doctor said, putting on his glasses and tapping away at the console.

"Future I'm guessing, how far out?" Clara asked in excitement, thinking no matter where they went she could never get over this.

"About three thousand years into your future, give or take." The Doctor said. He located the light switch and flipped it and revealed parts of the ceiling to show the stars. "Fifty first century. Diagmar Cluster"

"It's beautiful" Clara said, only looking away when her neck started to hurt. The Doctor smiled at her before looking over the ruined console.

"Dear me, had some cowboys in here. Got a ton of repair work going on." He began to look over the data "Now that's odd. Look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we're not moving. So where's all that power going?" he took the glasses off and looked around him.

"The crew?" Clara asked, looking at the screen "No life readings on board."

"Very odd" the Doctor sniffed theatrically "Can you smell that?"

"Yeah, cooking" she was about to shrug it off before she realised the obvious. "But who…"

"Good question" the Doctor said, although it wasn't really. He began to flip switches until a door opened to reveal a small room containing a blazing fire within an ornate fireplace. A broken clock stood on the mantle and the wall behind it was panelled.

"What the…" Clara stepped towards it and the Doctor raced ahead of her.

"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship." He mused as he checked it over "Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There's another room through there."

At this Clara knelt down and peered through the fire while the Doctor inspected the mantle. On the other side of the flames knelt a young girl with long blonde hair wearing a white nightgown.

"Hello" Clara said and the Doctor immediately crouched beside her upon noticing she was speaking to someone.

"Hello" the little girl said steadily, remarkably calm about having two complete strangers looking through her fireplace.

"What's your name?" Clara asked with a comforting smile she reserved for her new nannying jobs.

"Reinette" the little girl answered.

"Lovely name" Clara said. Reinette looked pleased, but Clara figured the Doctor better take over.

"Can you tell me where you are at the moment?" the Doctor asked, trying to see further into the room.

"In my bedroom." Reinette replied, almost as if she were afraid of getting the answer wrong. The Doctor tried to move it along.

"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?" he asked.

"Paris, of course." Reinette laughed. Clara smirked.

"Yeah, Paris duh Doctor" she said, raising her eyebrows at him cheekily.

"Paris, right!" the Doctor grinned and rolled his eyes at Clara. There was an awkward silence which in the end the little girl broke.

"Monsieur, what are you doing in my fireplace?" she asked, as if wondering she really wanted know the answer.

"Oh, it's just a routine fire check." The Doctor said vaguely before getting back on topic "Can you tell me what year it is?"

"Of course I can. Seventeen hundred and twenty seven." Reinette smiled.

"Right, lovely. One of my favourites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors." Clara elbowed him hard for revealing things about the future "Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night." The Doctor grinned and helped Clara to her feet.

"Goodnight Monsieur." Reinette called. Once they were sure she couldn't hear them anymore Clara turned to the Doctor.

"You said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe" Clara said slowly. The Doctor grinned, very pleased she'd figured it out without him. "I'm guessing that's the hole then"

"Yup" the Doctor said, popping the p. "Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink." He said.

"That is…?" Clara prompted and he frowned.

"No idea. Just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door." He confessed. Clara grinned and watched as he inspected the fireplace further.

"Gotcha!" he suddenly yelled, and the fireplace began to rotate so he disappeared into the wall leaving Clara on the ship.

A fifteen minutes later she got the shock of her life as the Doctor came spinning back into the room with a large clown faced sort of person. It had a very dangerous looking attachment to his hand that was stuck in the mantle. The Doctor grabbed a large silver gun off the wall and fired the icy substance all over the clown face.

"What in Rassilons name is that?" was the first thing that came out of Clara's mouth once she had recovered from the initial shock. Instead of answering her question, or even inspecting this thing he whirled around and stared at her as if she had just said the most astounding thing possible. "What?"

"What did you just say?" he asked in a hushed voice. Clara raised her eyebrows.

"I dunno" she shrugged and crossed her arms "It's just a thing, people say!"

"No not people, time-lords" he said bluntly, coming up right next to her and staring into her eyes.

"Ok… well maybe I heard you say it?" Clara said, stepping away.

"No…" the Doctor looked truly confused, before he shrugged and turned back to the job in hand.

Clara backed away from the human heart in horror. Humans, they were using human parts to power this ship. She collapsed to the floor, fighting nausea and trembling. _I've seen this before!_ The minute the thought crossed her mind her head began to ache as if it were trying to crack open.

_Well now, it's more a sort of automated organ collection station for the unwary diner. Sweeney Todd without the pies. _

_So where are we now?_

_Factually? An ancient spaceship, probably buried for centuries. Functionally? A larder._

An image of a silver haired man with a Scottish accent flashed in front of her eyes. She gasped and her head slammed against the wall. It came again.

_It would need a constant supply of spare parts. You can tan skin, but organs rot. Some of that metalwork looks Roman. Wonder how long it's been around, how much of the original is even left? The eyeballs look very fresh, though. _

"Stop it please, stop it" Clara sobbed, begging her own head as the eyeball camera loomed down on her. These were her memories, but she didn't know them, and it was burning her mind up.

_Well, if they're harvesting organs, a dinosaur would have some great stuff._

Clara slammed her head back again.

_Five foot one and crying. You never stood a chance._

With desperate strength, Clara's head collided heavily with the metal and a strange sense of relief swept over her as the blood flowed beneath her hair. She felt consciousness slipping, and closed her eyes. As she fell into blackness, her own voice filled her mind.

"I don't know. But I know where he will be. Where he will always be. If the Doctor is still the Doctor, he will have my back."

**Bit shorter this time but I don't feel Clara would've had a very big part to play in Girl in the Fireplace since its mainly a Doctor plot. Please Review!**


	7. Rise of the Cybermen

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 7

Clara slid her hips into her ripped black skinny jeans and did up the buttons. She stared at herself this way and that in the full length mirror hung on the back of her bedroom door. The tight black t-shirt was the same one she'd been wearing the night she stepped aboard the TARDIS, with sleeves that stopped just above her elbows and a plunging neckline. She could still see all the little things wrong with her, the too prominent collarbones, weird nose, the slightly too wide face. Her hair was loose and hanging normally past her shoulder blades, only a little longer then it had been a few months ago.

So what was it?

No matter what light she stood in, which angle she looked from, there was something considerably different about the way she looked that morning. Maybe it had been there for a while, she didn't really take time to look in the mirror these days, but she didn't look like the Clara Oswald who had worked in a bar in London.

It was stupid, ridiculous, but Clara was sure she looked… brighter. More alive. Realer.

But that was dumb. What had that made her before, not real? She had a life; it was there to look at. However since the Doctor, the traveling had become the only thing real in her life. Everything she left behind was fading, like it had never really been proper in the first place.

Peering closer, her intense gaze loocked with her own. Her eyes were brown. They had always been brown. Everyday she had lived with the garunteed knowlage her eyes were brown. So why did they look golden?

The TARDIS lurched.

Even if she had been wearing flats there was no way she could have stayed on her feet as she was thrown into the corridor and everything began to shake and spin. Thankfully she had enough sense to brace herself against the wall before they came to a very sudden stop and a load of gas masks dropped from the ceiling.

"Clara!" the Doctor's panicked voice came from the console room so she got to her feet and stumbled towards him. The console room was dark, and she could just make out his silhouette in the dim light.

"What was that?" she asked, as he hugged her in relief. The Doctor ran a hand through his hair and looked at the console.

"She's dead. The TARDIS is dead." He said in a soft voice. "She's perished. The last TARDIS in the universe. Extinct."

Clara didn't know what to say, because although she never had any reason to doubt the Doctors word she was refusing to believe it was dead. She walked towards the doors with her hand outstretched.

"There's nothing out there" he told her, but she ignored him and opened it anyway. Daylight flooded inside and Clara stepped out onto the embankment of London's river Thames.

"London, England, Earth." She said as she stepped out of the TARDIS, the Doctor following. A newspaper lay to one side with the date printed on it. "February 1st, the year you met me. Only…" she trailed off as she looked up at the sky "Zeppelins?"

"Must be a parallel universe" the Doctor decided "That's why the TARDIS can't recharge, this is the wrong universe. Like putting diesel in a petrol engine."

"Right" Clara nodded, thinking she understood. She noticed a large poster a few feet away with the name Pete Tyler on it. "Who's Pete Tyler?" she asked, although she wasn't sure the Doctor would know.

"You what?" he looked down at her in shock. She nodded towards the poster and relief flooded through him. "Hmm, parallel universe where Rose's dad never died"

"Who's Rose?" Clara asked, but the Doctor just went back into the TARDIS, leaving her alone.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at the message. It was from something called the Cybus network saying - Welcome! Free Trial Period.

She got onto the news networks and a journalist began to speak. "And it's good news for Great Britain as John Lumic returns to the country of his birth. Mister Lumic, the inventor of high content metal, has denied allegations of ill health."

Another man spoke, one Clara didn't recognise from her own world. "We're all flesh and blood, but the brain is what makes us human. And my mind is more creative than ever."

The Newsreader spoke again, saying "With shares in Cybus Industries doubling in price, Mister Lumic is –" a Zeppelin passed overhead, the noise from its rotors blocking out the next words. "In other news, the Torchwood Institute published a study claiming that" Clara lost interest and switched it off.

She loaded up the internet and googled Pete Tyler. He was a rich, successful man married to a woman called Jackie Tyler. She was about to find out why he was successful when the Doctor ran out the TARDIS with a glowing thing in his hand.

**"**I fixed it. Twenty four hours, then we're flying back to reality!" he announced in excitement. Clara grinned.

"That's awesome. Hey look, my phone connected There's this Cybus Network. It gave me Internet access."

"If your family-" Clara swiftly cut his concerns short.

"No, this Mr. Tyler. He's weird, I wanna find out why. You coming?"

The walked into London, the Doctor telling Clara about who Rose was, feeling he owed her that. She said nothing the whole time and was silent when he'd finished.

"She doesn't exist. In this world, just so you know" she said shortly after a while. He nodded, feeling wise about not saying anything. There was a strange beeping noise and suddenly everyone stopped, even the policemen.

"Okay…What're they all doing?" Clara asked, slightly creeped out.

"They've stopped." The Doctor stated the obvious. Everyone around them had strange metallic ear pods attached that were flashing.

"It's the earpieces. Like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together." The Doctor realised as Clara noticed it on her phone.

"It's on my phone. It's automatic, look. It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting? News, international news, sports, weather." The words flashed across her screen.

"They get it direct. Downloaded right into their heads." The Doctor said . Clara pulled a face as more went across the screen. "Everyone shares the same information. A daily download published by Cybus Industries."

The word Joke was on Clara's phone and everyone laughed. Then they all began to go around as if nothing had happened.

"You lot, you're obsessed. You'd do anything for the latest upgrade." The Doctor moaned at the people around them. "It's not so far off your world. This place is only parallel. Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries, owners of just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mister Pete Tyler's very well connected. Oh, okay. I give up. Let's go and see him."

They wound up as kitchen staff at Jackie Tyler's 40th birthday party. Clara was getting glares from the rest of the catering staff because she refused to where the dress and apron, serving champagne in her ripped jeans. No one seemed to pay her much attention. She joined the Doctor after fifteen minutes, her lipstick smudged.

"Ok, so according to Felix that man over there is-" she got no further as the Doctors ssharp vision focused on her mouth and jelousy flashed aacross his eyes.

"Who's Felix?"

"That guy over there" Clara smirked, avoiding his question "Is the President of Great Britain. No PM"

"Hmm, interesting. Did you have to wear that?" he frowned at her outfit but then Pete Tyler stood on the stairs and called them all to attention.

"Excuse me! Thank you very much. Thank you if I could just have your attention, please? I'd just like to say thank you to you all, for coming on this, this very special occasion. My wife's thirty ninth." There was an outbreak of laughter at this. "Trust me on this. And so, without any further ado, here she is, the birthday girl. My lovely wife, Jackie Tyler."

Jackie came down the stairs in skin tight black dress to general applause. "Now, I'm not giving a speech. That's what my parties are famous for. No work, no politics, just a few good mates and plenty of black market whisky. Pardon me, Mister President. So, yeah, get on with it. Enjoy, enjoy. Rose! There's my little girl! Come to mummy, come to mummy!" a small furry lap dog ran up to her and she picked her up. "Yes, good girl! Good girl, aren't you?"

Clara collapsed into laughter and even the Doctor had to join in.

Later on the Doctor wondered off to find a computer while Clara leaned against the back wall. She was pretty bored, but her head snapped to attention when someone said "Ah, Mr President, might I introduce Christopher Oswald?"

There, talking to the President was her father. He looked the same way he had throughout her childhood, handsome face and brown hair and eyes. Next to him stood her mother, who was introduced as Diane Oswald. Clara felt her heart break.

She remembered her whole life with the two people stood a few feet away. Baking soufflés with her mum, learning about computers with her dad, day trips to Brighton, every sick day, and every weekend. Running into her dads arms at the end of the day when he came from work. The way her mum kissed her when she was proud of her.

Then her dad said something that hit her like a tank. "This is our daughter, Georgia Oswald"

The girl stood between her parents looked nothing like Clara. Clara had known her whole life she didn't look like her parents, the colouring was just similar. Georgia was tanned, had her mother's face, her father's nose, the family's smile, her grandmother's ears and _blonde _hair. Her brown eyes were a more hazel colour rather than Clara's own chocolate. This girl was so obviously Clara's parent's daughter, and looking at it like this, Clara could see she had never looked like anyone in her family.

_"__This doesn't make any sense" Mark frowned as she showed him the results "Your mum wouldn't keep this from you, there must be a mistake"_

_"__No mistake. I did it sixteen times. The results are always the same" Clara chewed the hangnail on her thumb. This wasn't happening. Stuff like this didn't happen!_

Clara closed her eyes as she remembered that day in her high school biology lab. And what had followed.

_"__How could you keep this from me!" Clara screamed at her parents, tears running over her cheeks. Both sat at the dining room table looking truly astonished._

_"__Clara darling, there must be a mistake!" her mum sobbed "I swear to you, this isn't real!"_

_"__STOP LYING!" _

She remembered the fights, the tests and the constant insistence that what was stood in front of them was not true.

_"__Baby, don't do this, we love you so much, you can't do this!" her dad begged her as she dragged the suitcase down the stairs. She'd never seen her dad cry before, but he looked like he was about to._

_"__If you really love me, you won't try and find me" Clara said steadily before she slammed the door shut and posted the keys through the letterbox._

No one had followed. She was glad.

_"__I need a job" she told the guy behind the bar "Whatever it takes"_

_"__How old are you?"_

_"__Older then I look" Clara lied. "Please, I'm out of school and I'm desperate"_

_"__What's your name?" he asked her. She sighed and thought for a moment._

_"__Oswin. Oswin Oswald." There was no going back now, and that was how she liked it._

**Please Review!**


	8. Falling Slowly

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 8

"Who were they?" the Doctor asked Clara once they were safe in their own universe. It had been a rather eventful trip ending in Clara hacking the cyber network to stop the Cybermen and Lumic. She was exhausted after a lot of running and watching a lot of innocent people die, but the Doctor wanted to understand before she went to bed.

"Who?" Clara asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

"That family. A man, a woman and a girl, around your age, who got deleted. You looked… well just the way you acted. As if you couldn't decide whether or not you should help them." He elaborated, folding him arms as Clara fell into the chair beside him and drew her knees to her chest.

She was quiet for some time. "You said my family in this world… they weren't really my family"

"No…" the Doctor said "Saving them in that world would have been completely different to saving them in yours. They wouldn't have known you, if you didn't exist and you couldn't save your parents in your own world. Rose stopped her dad's death once and the results were disastrous" he explained. It was strange how casually he mentioned rose, and how he didn't feel that stab.

"They're not dead." Clara said with an empty laugh. "My parents are alive and well"

"You told me you didn't have any family" the Doctor said, thinking back to the night he met her.

"I don't. I walked out on them when I was 16 and never looked back. I've been working in a bar ever since" Clara told him.

"Why'd you walk out?"

"They lied to me. And when I found out they didn't have the decency to admit what they'd done" Clara said bitterly, trying to expel the pain from her voice.

"All parents lie to their children" the Doctor said.

"I'm not talking small scale. They lied about everything. My whole life!" Clara said fiercely, her eyes burning in fury. Then it was gone. "I was always clever. So clever. Too clever. When I was 16, my friend Mark got it in his head that he was an alien. Don't ask me why. So we both collected samples of DNA from our parents and compared them to our own. Just for fun. Neither of us thought we'd find anything."

"But you did?" the Doctor guessed.

"Me and my mum and dad shared no DNA whatsoever. There was no way we were even distantly related. I did it again and again but it was always the same. So I took the results home and demanded they tell me everything, where I came from. Only they insisted my mum carried and gave birth to me even though the truth was right there. In the end I gave up and cleared out of there. I hadn't seen them until that party. That girl with them? That was their daughter. She looked like them, she had the name of my dad's younger sister, the name they had originally planned to give me. She was me, only _right_." Tears slid down her cheeks so all the Doctor did was pull her close. He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"You're not wrong. You will never, ever be wrong impossible girl. Not so long as I'm around." He said with fierce determination. She looked up at him, and he looked down at her.

"Allons-y?" she whispered and snapped him from his daydream.

"Allons-y!" he grinned and stepped away to fly the TARDIS.

* * *

_Where am I? Where am I? I don't know where I am?_

**Something's wrong!**

_Have to save the Doctor, I have to save the Doctor!_

**The timeline! It's changing. Everything's going wrong. It can't be like this.**

_Allons-y!_

_Geronimo!_

**Stop, wherever you are, whatever you are you have to stop. You're doing it wrong. You can't stay like this! You can't stay with him!**

_You're not wrong, you will never be wrong!_

**It doesn't matter how you feel, what you want. You have to save him and you're screwing it up. Please just listen! **

_You could come with me_

**No! This isn't how it happens. Stop you have to stop!**

Clara sat bolt upright, gasping as much oxygen into her lungs as possible. Images, lives, so many Doctors and so many Claras flashed across her mind and her eyes blazed gold. Energy, power and knowledge pushed itself to the very corners of her mind and for one clear moment, everything made sense. Then the force knocked her unconscious, and the next morning she didn't remember anything.

* * *

"Where do you want to go today?" the Doctor grinned as she entered the console room covered in flower.

"Anywhere to take my mind of faceless monsters, TV's that eat people and burnt soufflés." Clara announced.

"Lots of places I can think of" he told her "Give me somewhere specific!"

"Oh I dunno" Clara rolled her eyes. "Let's go somewhere beautiful. With different coloured plants and a different sky and no weird aliens trying to kill us in sight!"

"Let's ask the TARDIS!" the Doctor shouted, running around the console. "An alien planet that's beautiful"

"Coolness" Clara smiled. She gripped the railing as they rocked through space and time before finally coming to a stop. "Where are we?"

"No idea!" the Doctor said cheerfully, pulling on his coat and opening the door. Clara stepped outside with her eyes closed. It was quite cold, but she wasn't too bothered. She slowly opened her eyes.

They were stood by a large lake. The water was smooth and calm, perfectly clear so you could see the shining sapphire rock at the bottom. Clara's healed brown ankle boot was stood on white frosted grass as snow fell slowly around her. She looked up and gasped at the sky. Thousands of stars, pink, blue, white, amber, purple and a hundred other colours shone down from above. They lit the entire area, reflecting in the lake and Clara's eyes.

"Oh my god" she whispered, turning around to get a good look at everything. "This is incredible!"

"Yeah it is" the Doctor murmured. He took her hand in his and began to walk towards the lake. Neither said anything for a while, admiring the dazzling sky. After a while the Doctor stopped looking at the stars and at her face. The light made her pale skin glow and her eyes shine. He noticed the curve in her lips as she smiled, the cute way her nose sloped and savoured the soft feel of her hand in his. She was beautiful, not in the way Rose had been, just in her own way.

Clara looked round to notice him staring. "What?" she demanded, looking down at her clothes hoping to find something there.

"Nothing…" the Doctor grinned. "It's just… well… beautiful!"

"I know right!" Clara's smile lit up her entire face "Amazing!"

He might have said he meant her, not the sky. That it was dull in comparison. That despite how it should be, despite the promises he made himself, despite Rose, he was falling for her slowly. But he was the Doctor, and he wasn't like that. Humans did feelings, affection. And he most certainly wasn't human. He was a timelord.

Clara was human. She'd age. They didn't mix, no matter what his feelings. So he should just enjoy his time with her without complicating it.

He couldn't explain the feeling that said he would never be without his Impossible Girl.

**Please Review!**


	9. Even if it means you die

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 9

Clara felt extremely groggy. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she stirred in the uncomfortable seat. Something tight restricted her waist and her head was cloudy. Muffled voices surrounded her and she tried to make sense of her surroundings. She tried to remember what had happened.

"Captain, I think we're going to have a problem passenger." Somebody next to her said, but his voice sounded distant.

"Keep an eye on her." Someone else said. Zach, Clara remembered. Then it all tumbled into her mind. The black hole, the Satan's pit! The Doctor! She was abandoning him to die, she had to save him. She had to save him!

"Wait. We're not-" she twisted in the seatbelt but she couldn't get free. Danny who was sat next to her tried to calm her down.

"It's all right, Clara. You're safe." He said soothingly.

Clara felt the energy course through her. "I can't leave him, please! I have to help him! You don't understand, I can't leave him, I have to save him!" she begged desperately. They all looked away, not wanting to say anything.

"And lift off! Whoo!" Zach said as the rocket began to soar away from the impossible planet. Clara felt the screaming sensation inside of her increase. In panic she grabbed a gun lying nearby and pointed it at Zach.

"Take me back down now!" she said slowly through gritted teeth.

"Or what?" Zach asked her not looking at her. No one could.

"Or I _will _shoot you." Clara said without a shred of doubt in her mind. The crew glanced uneasily at her and had to do a double take as her eyes blazed gold.

"Oh my god!" Danny murmured, trying to move as far away as he could from her "What happened to you?"

Zach seemed pretty shaken too, but was more focused on the gun pointed at him. "Would you really shoot us, though? Would you really? Is that what your Doctor would want?"

"Trust me; you do not want to underestimate how far I will go to save him. Because me, this world, this universe would be nothing without him! I have to-" what she had to do, they never found out because she suddenly stopped and slumped in her seat going shockingly white and closing her eyes. Her breathing became shallow and she struggled to speak.

"Sorry, but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted. Isn't that right?" Zach said, thinking she'd finally accepted they couldn't do anything.

"Um Zach, she's boiling up" Danny said in concern, his fingers scorched against Clara's white hot skin. He grabbed her wrist and tried to locate a pulse. "Her heart rate's falling!"

"What are you talking about?"

"She's dying!" Danny said in astonishment "Everything- all her life signs are failing!"

"How? What caused it? Keep her awake!" Zach ordered as he set the coordinates to planet earth.

"I can't do anything! I have no supplies. If she gets worse at this rate she'll be dead in ten minutes!" Danny shouted while Toby began to laugh. "What the hell is funny about any of this!"

"Just, we made it. We escaped. We actually did it." Toby said with another strange laugh.

"Please" Clara murmured, her heart beat getting slower and slower. "Please, I have to save him."

**I accept that you exist. I don't have to accept what you are, but you're physical existence, I'll give you that. I don't understand. I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. You need me for something. What for? Have I got to, I don't know, beg an audience? Or is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation or summons or spell? All these things I don't believe in, are they real? Speak to me! Tell me! You won't talk. Or you can't talk. Oh, hold on, wait a minute, just let me. Oh! No. Yes! No. Think it through. You spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No, more than that. Brilliant. But, looking at you now, all I can see is Beast. The animal. Just the body. You're just the body, the physical form. What's happened to your mind, hmm? Where's it gone? Where's that intelligence? Oh, no. **

Clara breathed deeply, but it didn't help. Danny desperately held her as her muscles went limp and her pulse got fainter. She tried to think, but her head wasn't working. She had to save him that much was logical. She was his companion, she saw what he did and how fantastic he was, how much bigger he was to the universe. But there was more. It was like her body was shutting down in attempt to force her to turn around and do whatever it took to save his life. It scared her, because she was dying to make her save him.

**You're imprisoned, long time ago. Before the universe, after, sideways, in between, doesn't matter. The prison is perfect. It's absolute, it's eternal. Oh, yes! Open the prison, the gravity field collapses. This planet falls into the black hole! You escape, you die. Brilliant! But that's just the body. The body is trapped, that's all. The devil is an idea. In all those civilisations, just an idea. But an idea is hard to kill. An idea could escape. The mind. The mind of the great Beast. The mind can escape! Oh, but that's it! You didn't give me air, your jailers did. They set this up all those years ago! They need me alive, because if you're escaping, then I've got to stop you. If I destroy your prison, your body is destroyed. Your mind with it. … But then you're clever enough to use this whole system against me. If I destroy this planet, I destroy the gravity field. The rocket. The rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole. I have to sacrifice Clara. **

"I-, Why would it let us go?" for some reason this other thought had occurred to Clara.

"Oh shut up and get on with dying would you!" Toby snapped unkindly.

"Yeah that's great advice!" Danny yelled sarcastically in panic "Do not die Clara!"

**So, that's the trap. Or the test, or the final judgment, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill her. Except that implies in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils that she's just a victim. But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demi-gods and would-be gods, and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in her.**

The rocket began to shake violently. Clara closed her eyes and let the darkness descend on her brain.

**This is your freedom. Free to die. You're going into that black hole and I'm riding with you. **

She was briefly aware of Toby screaming about living forever and rage and anger. It was pissing her off but for some reason she was not unconscious yet, just sort of hanging on the edge. Toby was going to kill them all and she was useless, with her instincts screaming to save the Doctor. In the end it got too much for her, the not dying and the breathing fire so she gathered her remaining energy to open her eyes, grab the gun and prayed to god that firing a gun was as easy as it looked. She felt the last of her energy slip away as she raised the gun and shot the window. She heard the glass shatter and Danny reached over to unfasten Toby's seatbelt. She rested her head against the wall and waited for it all to end while the Captain and Danny talked about them doing everything they could. Then suddenly the shaking of the rocket stopped.

Clara shocked into life. Colour flushed into her cheeks, her heart jump started so suddenly it nearly caused it to stop and she gasped dramatically. Danny jumped as well, stunned by her immediate recovery.

"We're turning around!" Zach laughed out loud, not having noticed Clara yet.

"Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship Tardis." The Doctor's voice surrounded the rocket and Clara shrieked with laughter.

"Yes!"

"I take it Miss Clara Oswald is on board!" the Doctor said with a smile in his voice. Zach turned around in astonishment.

"You're alive!" Danny said weakly "How are you alive? You should be dead!"

"Yeah, yeah" Clara said dismissivly "Doctor where are you?"

**"**I'm just towing you home. Gravity schmavity. My people practically invented black holes." The Doctor said hastily "What do you mean should be dead?"

"It's nothing, invented black holes?" Clara quickly changed the subject.

**"**Well, in fact, they did. In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and Captain? Can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Clara Oswald, I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?"

**"**She's alive!" Zach cried in relief.

"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right. I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." An uncomfortable silence fell over them for a while before finally he said "Ah! Entering clear space. End of the line. Mission Closed."

Clara was never more relieved to be wrapped in the Doctor's arms about an hour later. He lifted her clean off her feet and she buried her face in his chest, glad she was alive and even more glad he was. They said goodbye to the crew and the Doctor said "And the next time you get curious about something..." then he sighed "Oh, what's the point. You'll just go blundering in. The human race." He said fondly.

"But Doctor, what did you find down there? That creature, what was it?" Ida asked eagerly.

"I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good, Day I know everything? Might as well stop." The Doctor grinned, wrapping an arm around Clara's waist and pulling her close.

"What do you think it was, really?" she asked, looking up at him. His expression darkened for a moment.

"I think we beat it. That's good enough for me." He said seriously. Clara swallowed and said in a shaking voice,

"It said I would die. Die and die again. That's not possible and even if it was-" he squeezed her tight and shushed her.

"Then it lied. Right, onwards, upwards. Ida? See you again, maybe." He smiled, but his eyes showed his concern.

**"**I hope so."

"And thanks, boys!" Clara winked at Danny and Zach.

**"**Hang on though, Doctor." Ida called "You never really said. You two, who are you?" Clara and the Doctor grinned at each other.

"Oh, the stuff of legend." The Doctor grinned before closing the TARDIS doors and flying off into space.

**Please Review!**


	10. Dancing towards the Storm

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 10

"Can we go dancing?"

Clara's question surprised the Doctor. He had expected her to request a day in bed considering they had just had a pretty eventful trip to the 2012 Olympics. She didn't really look tired, so of course he agreed.

He took her to the towers of Derillium. They always had fantastic dances there and he wanted the best for her. He piloted the TARDIS, did a triple scan for anything dangerous and changed into his tux. This all took a good half hour, but Clara still hadn't returned from the wardrobe. He waited another ten minutes, then another fifteen and after a further twenty he was about to go find her when she entered the console room.

It had been worth the wait. She wasn't one for dressing up much, although she did enjoy it briefly on trips to the past, so her dress was simple, but she still looked beautiful. The dress was black and strapless, tight around the chest and waist before flaring slightly. It was quite short for a formal dance, but she wouldn't have listened if he'd told her to go find something longer. Her heals were strappy and very high, also black and she'd curled her hair for the occasion. Then she'd pinned a single red rose in her hair to add some colour.

"Well?" she asked, eyes sparkling as she spun around.

The Doctor swallowed. "You look fantastic. Like my suit?"

"Yeah. I like the bow tie."

_Bow ties are cool! _Clara pushed the pounding thoughts away. Nothing was going to ruin her night.

They stepped out of the TARDIS arm in arm, to the sound of the most beautiful singing in the universe. A few feet away was an enormous dance floor lit by the stars and soft glowing lanterns, filled with people from all over the universe.

"Do you want to dance?" he asked her, almost shy. She took his hand and he led her to the floor, pulling her close and stepping slowly to the music. It was a classic waltz, and although Clara could never remember learning it, she was rather good at it.

"You're a good dancer" Clara commented after a few silent minutes "Where did you learn?"

"My home planet" the Doctor grinned, spinning her around. "Gallifrey."

"Planet of the time-lords" Clara smiled. "Do you go there a lot? Do you miss it?"

The Doctor's face fell slightly. "I can't ever go back. It's gone. And yes, I miss it" he looked so sad; Clara's heart broke at the sight.

"Where'd it go?" she asked lightly, hoping she wouldn't upset him further.

"It burned." The Doctor said emotionlessly.

"How?" she asked, eyes wide. He looked at them briefly. Wide, honest and brown. Then he glanced away, because she believed in him, and he didn't want her to think badly of him. "Tell me" she said gently.

"I can't." He whispered "This me, this man you see. I try and save everyone. I try and be a hero. But I'm not really"

"That doesn't matter" she said fiercely. She reached a hand up and gently brushed his cheek. "I don't care what you may have done. I have seen you do so many incredible things to save people. You could have killed the flesh in New New York, but you save them. You could have joined the Krillatain and saved people you love, but you saw what was right and didn't. You are an interesting man by no means, but I have seen what you do, who you try to be and that matters to me."

The Doctor listened to her little speech. She sounded like she meant it, and he trusted her, which was really not easy when it came to him. So he took a deep breath. "There was a war. Between my people and the Daleks, nasty things. It was the greatest war the universe had ever seen, and would have destroyed everything. Every galaxy. So I had to stop it. In the end there was nothing else to do. I burned the planet to stop the Daleks. My own people. I'm the last one left."

"Could you have done anything else?" Clara asked softly. He shook his head to answer her question and escape the memories of the time war. "Then there you go. A man left with an impossible decision. I don't blame you."

"How can you not. Billions of people dead because of me!"

"To save even more. I will never doubt you!" Clara hissed. The Doctor saw the truth in her eyes. "I want to know you. I want to know there is more to you then a mad man with a blue box running away. No matter what, at least I know where you came from and that you have a past to run away from."

Then he smirked at her. "What about you?"

"You know my past. Besides, I'm human. What is interesting about me?" Clara said dismissively, looking at her shoes. He lifted her chin and rolled his eyes.

"What's your favourite colour?" he asked with a smile. Clara laughed.

"Why would you want to know that?"

"I want to know everything about you" he said simply "Your likes and habits and all the things that make you so beautifully human."

"It's red"

"So why do you always wear black?" he asked with a frown. Clara laughed.

"I'm a barmaid. I wear black to work, and it sort of stuck" she explained. "What's yours then?"

"Blue" he said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Clara rolled her eyes at him.

Clara had never danced the way the two of them danced that night. She stepped and spun, held tightly in his arms and answering his pointless questions the whole time. It was an exhilarating feeling, looking into his eyes and really seeing his age, the things he had done, seen, gained and lost. There was sadness in his eyes, but that night she saw it drowned in the joy of dancing with her.

It would be easy, she realised. So easy to fall in love. With the way he smiled at her, the way he tried to save everyone. With his wonderful hair and those glasses he whipped on and off. With how he spoke at a hundred miles per hour and believed his screwdriver could fix everything. With all the things he showed her, and the wonderful way he said her name. Too easy.

Would he love her back? She would give her life for him, but would he do the same. He kept her safe, but would that always be enough? She would grow old, he would regenerate. She was a human, he was a freaking alien!

All these things should have stopped her.

But they didn't.

Clara Oswald fell in love. So when he asked her how long she'd stay, she promised him forever.

**Please Review!**


	11. Meeting Rose Tyler

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 11

When Clara had been on earth, her phone had been her life. It was the latest modal, and she spent virtually all her money on it texting her mates from work and a casual string of boyfriends 24/7. When she started travelling with the Doctor he had soniced it so she could use it anywhere in the universe, but she hadn't because who would she call. She didn't have family to check in on, and why should she care about the things she and her friends talked about when she could go all over the universe. Her life back on earth seemed kind of pointless in comparison. She still occasionally texted her best friends Nina and Rory, but other than that the phone remained unused in the front pocket of her jeans.

So, it was a bit of a surprise when she came back to her room after taking a shower to find it vibrating like crazy.

"Hello" she said as she answered, not bothered to glance at the caller ID.

"Clara!" Nina's distinctive voice came down the line "I've been trying to reach you for over an hour!"

"Yeah… sorry" Clara said "What's up?"

"Where are you?" Nina demanded "Have you seen the ghosts? Don't you think they're wonderful?"

"What ghosts?" Clara sighed, thinking Nina was probably just getting another obsession with a TV show.

"You're probably still in bed aren't you?" Nina laughed "The ghosts. They're everywhere! I finally got to see Joey again."

"Right…" Clara frowned "All over earth?"

"Duh yeah!" Nina said.

"Ok, hey Neens, what's the date?" Clara asked, thinking she should go home and check on her friend since it sounded like she'd really lost it.

"How much did you have to drink last night? It's 12th July 2007. I gotta go, catch up with you later yeah?" Nina said very quickly before she hung up.

Clara sighed and headed out of the bedroom down the corridor to the console room. She slipped the phone into the pocket of her stonewashed skinny jeans as she went, hoping the Doctor didn't have a plan today.

"Ah there you are!" the Doctor cried as she climbed the steps "What do you want to do today?"

"I was wandering if we could go to earth, London, 12th July 2007" Clara said, chewing her lip "I just got a very interesting call from my friend Nina and I need to check on her"

"Alright then" the Doctor said, not wanting to deny her anything "Then can we go to the pyramids. Oo, Cleopatra!"

Clara laughed as he piloted the TARDIS. They came to a stop a moment later and the Doctor pulled on his coat, heading for the door. They stepped out into a children's playground on a bright and sunny day. Blocks of flats surrounded the area, and it looked like an ordinary estate.

"Where are we?" Clara asked, looking round her "I don't know this place"

"It's the Powel Estate" the Doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck "The TARDIS brought us here… but why?"

"Who lives here?" Clara asked, not entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Rose. Rose and her mum." The Doctor said, looking her right in the eye. She stared unblinking back. "What did your friend Nina say?"

"Ghosts. She said there were ghosts all over the world" Clara said "I thought she might just be getting too into some show or something. She's like that"

"Well, no harm in going and asking." the Doctor said "Let's go and see the Tylers!"

* * *

Rose was crashed out on the couch in front of the TV, waiting for Granddad Prentice's arrival. She was watching some broadcast about the ghosts starting to speak and wondering if she'd ever find her dad's ghost. She's looked everywhere for, but no luck.

Her life had gone back to normal when she had said goodbye to the Doctor that Christmas. At first she had lay in her bed crying, waiting for him to come back and beg her for a second chance. He hadn't. Mickey had joined a place called Torchwood, and had alerted the Doctor about a few strange things happening on earth. She could have gone to see him, helped him, but she hadn't. She knew she was being stupid, but she wanted him to come to her. Because she thought she meant more to him than that.

Eventually she moved on. She got another job, restarted her relationship with Mickey and six months after Christmas, and was not so hung up over him leaving her.

Then there was the knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" she called to her mum who was making tea in the kitchen, and walked out into the hallway. She wrenched the front door open and nearly fainted to see the Doctor, not her Doctor this new one, standing there looking sheepish.

"Hi" was all she managed to say.

"Hello!" the Doctor said cheerfully "I'm on a ghost hunt!"

"You what?"

"Ghosts" the Doctor said. Rose squirmed inside. Months she'd dreamed of this, him showing up on her doorstep out of the blue, but he was so different. Skinny and funny with sideburns and normal sized ears. "Have you seen any?"

"Um yeah, one's just about to arrive" Rose said "You can come in if you…"

"Rose who is it sweetheart?" her mum called from the kitchen. The Doctor cringed.

"Oh no, she'd not going to slap me again is she?" he asked, stepping into the flat.

"Any second now." Rose said nervously "My granddad Prentice, he passed away. His heart gave out." She explained.

"Then how can he come back?" the Doctor asked.

"Why don't you ask him yourself? Ten past. Here he comes." Rose said. That moment a strange, ethereal humanoid shape walked through the outside wall. The Doctor realised why they called them ghosts.

"Doctor, this is my granddad" Rose said. The Doctor took one look and could only stare. Rose felt a warm sensation fill her. Despite the months, he was here, beside her, ready to start on some _this should not be happening thing_. Then something made her stomach plummet.

From outside, the distinctive voice of a young girl called "Doctor!"

He was down the steps like a rocket, and she ran after him, more out of habit even though she knew what she might find would only upset her further. Out in the estate the ghosts walked around the way they always did, no one was bothered. The Doctor ran straight to the side of a young girl Rose recognised vaguely, and jealousy boiledin her blood. She was annoyingly pretty and freakishly short, especially next to him. She wore ripped jeans, high heels and a black suit jacket, her hair was twisted up at the back of her head but she did not come across as either smart or sophisticated despite her attire.

"Oh my god, Nina was right" she murmured, looking around her "They're everywhere!"

"They haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They're about to fade." Rose said. The girl turned to look at her and gave her a vicious scowl which rose happily returned.

"What do you mean, shift?" the Doctor demanded, oblivious to the girl's exchange "Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What's going on?"

"No one's running or screaming or freaking out." The girl observed thoughtfully, looking at all the ordinary people.

"Why should we?" Rose sneered before looking at her watch "Here we go. Twelve minutes past."

Once the ghosts faded, the Doctor turned to Rose. "Your TV. We need to see your TV!"

* * *

Jackie Tyler had a few choice words for the Doctor, but she couldn't really be mad since Rose had told him to go away. She greeted Clara warmly enough, but stayed away out of loyalty to her daughter.

The Doctor and Clara sat on the floor, her leaning against him with his arm around her, eyes fixed on the TV.

**On today's Ghostwatch, claims that some of the ghosts are starting to talk, and there seems to be a regular formation gathering around Westminster Bridge. It's almost like a military display. **

**#**

**And tonight we're expecting very strong ghosts from London, through the North and up into Scotland. **

#

**So basically, Eileen, what you're telling me is, that you are in love with a ghost. **

**He's my ghost, and I love him twenty four seven. **

#

**Well, no one needs me anymore! **

#

**My ghost was pale and grey until I discovered Ectoshine! **

#

**Et le President d'aujourd'hui, quelle est **

#

"It's all over the world." Clara voiced the obvious as the TV switched to Eastenders.

**Listen to me, Den Watts. I don't care if you have come back from the grave. Get out of my pub! The only spirits I'm serving in this place are gin, whisky and vodka. So, you heard me. Get out! **

Jackie laughed, so the Doctor switched the TV off and turned to her. "When did it start?" he asked.

"Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down-" Jackie began, making Clara want to hit her head with her hand.

"No, I mean worldwide."

"That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were. Ghosts, everywhere. We all ran round screaming and that. Whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much. Then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realise that we're lucky." Rose said, shooting a smug look Clara's way.

"What makes you think it's your granddad?" she asked.

"It just feels like him. There's that smell, those old cigarettes." Jackie said slightly distant "You've got to make an effort. You've got to want it."

"The more you want it, the stronger it gets." The Doctor decided.

"Sort of, yeah." Rose agreed.

"Like a psychic link. Of course you want your old dad to be alive, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in." the doctor said. Clara bit her lip as Jackie's face fell.

"You're spoiling it!"

"I'm sorry, Jackie, but there's no smell, there's no cigarettes. Just a memory." The Doctor reasoned.

"But if they're not ghosts, what are they then?" Rose asked him.

"Yeah, but they're human! You can see them. They look human."

"She's got a point. I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people." Clara said.

"Maybe not. They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn't look like a boot." The Doctor said, and a heavy silence fell over them all.

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	12. Torchwood

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 12

**A/N Rickey didn't die in the parallel universe for the sake of this story.**

"According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds. Now don't tell me you're going to sit back and do nothing." Clara said, leaning against the railing in the TARDIS. Rose stood awkwardly to one side, watching her as she leafed through the pages. She seemed so at home here, stood next to him. It had once been Rose Tyler and the Doctor. Now it was Clara Oswald and the Doctor. It didn't seem fair to her. He had _replaced _her. Like she was nothing to him. Replaced him with some brunette in high heels and ripped jeans.

The Doctor popped up from the floor with a backpack and a strange hosepipe thing. "What you gonna call?" he shouted.

"Ghostbusters!" Clara shrieked with laughter as he jumped up and headed towards the door, completely forgetting Rose.

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts." He said in a stupid voice before running out into the playground where Jackie was waiting. "When's the next shift?" he asked her.

"Quarter to." Rose said, just to get him to notice her "What's that lot do?"

"Triangulates their point of origin." The Doctor explained as he set it up. Clara looked ready to say something, so despite it being silly and childish Rose hurried in with her own suggestions before she had a chance.

"I don't suppose it's the Gelth?"

"Gelth?" Clara raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

"Nah. They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper." The Doctor said.

"You're always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real? Just think of it, though. All the people we've lost. Our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?" Jackie asked, putting an arm around Rose. The Doctor and Clara looked at them.

"I think it's horrific." The Doctor said bluntly "Clara, give us a hand."

The two raced into the TARDIS, Jackie and Rose following. They plugged some cables in and fiddled for a bit while Rose hovered hopefully and Jackie stood back.

"As soon as the cones activate, if that line goes into the red, press that button there. If it doesn't stop" The Doctor instructed Clara, handing her the sonic screwdriver "Setting fifteen B. Hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop."

"Fifteen B, eight seconds." Clara grinned.

"If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left." He then instructed. Clara pointed at the button and the Doctor nodded in approval.

"Right, how long have we got?"

"Two minutes" Jackie supplied and he ran back out into the playground. Rose stayed put, sick of him ignoring her.

"What's the line doing?" he shouted from outside.

"It's all right. It's holding!" Clara called, her eyes and hands busy with the console. Rose watched her, thinking how if she'd just given him a chance, it would have been her.

"You used to be like that" Jackie said quietly, coming up beside her. "You'd changed so much when you went away."

"For the better." Rose argued half-heartedly.

"No." Jackie shook her head. "You belong home with me. With Mickey. Because when I'm gone, you would have never come back if you were still with him. You'd keep on changing. And in forty years' time, fifty, there'd be this woman, this strange woman, walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human."

Rose let this thought sink in while the Doctor and Clara shouted back and forth. They trapped the ghost for a bit, then he came running back in with a grin on his face. "I said so! Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source. Allons-y!" he threw the TARDIS into flight. "I like that. Allons y. I should say allons-y more often. Allons y. Impossible Girl. Allons y. And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, allons y, Alonso, every time. You're staring at me." He said, looking intently at Clara's face. She coughed and nudged her head in Rose's direction. The Doctor waved awkwardly at her.

"My mum's still on board." She said coldly.

"If we end up on Mars, I'm going to kill you." Jackie shouted from above, making clara snigger, and the Doctor groan.

They materialised in a loading bay somewhere. The minute they were still armed troops surrounded them as they watched from the scanner.

"Oh well there goes the advantage of surprise. Still, cuts to the chase. Stay in here, look after Jackie." The Doctor said cheerfully to the girls.

"I am not staying here with them!" Clara said in horror.

"I'm not looking after my mum." Rose said simultaneously. Both girls glared at him. The Doctor ignored Clara and tried to reason with Rose.

"you brought her." He said.

"I was kidnapped!" Jackie argued.

"Doctor, they've got guns." Rose changed the subject, please her was paying some ttention finally.

"And I haven't. Which makes me the better person, don't you think? They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." He said, winking at Clara as he stepped outside. Jackie and Rose stayed by the door while she watched from the monitor. A woman in a skirt suit with big blonde hair was applauding him.

"Oh! Oh, how marvellous. Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day." She said, making the soldiers join in.

"Er, thanks. Nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor." He awkwardly introduced himself. This was not really the sort of thing he had expected.

"Oh, I should say. Hurray!" the woman grinned and started clapping again.

"You, you've heard of me, then?"

"Well of course we have. And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here. The Doctor and the Tardis." They clapped even more at this, making the Doctor even more uncomfortable and try to get them to stop.

"And you are?" he asked.

"Oh, plenty of time for that." The woman said dismissively. "But according to the records, you're not one for travelling alone. The Doctor and his companion. That's a pattern, isn't it, right? There's no point hiding anything. Not from us. So where is she?"

"Yes. Sorry. Good point. She's just a bit shy, that's all." The Doctor grinned, reaching into the TARDIS and grasping, much to Clara's amusement, the first person he could. It just so happened to be Jackie.

"But here she is, err... Rose Tyler." The Doctor said, looking Jackie up and down. "Hmm. She's not the best I've ever had. Bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. A lot of that." He made a yakkety yak movement with his hand. "And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty seven years. But she'll do."

"I'm forty." Jackie cried.

"Deluded. Bless. I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad. Anyway, lead on. Allons-y. But not too fast. Her ankle's going." The Doctor continued making Jackie retort angrily.

Clara and Rose heard them walk away, before turning to face each other.

"So…" Rose was first to break the unbelievably awkward silence.

"So" Clara sighed "Looks like we have to find our own way around. Psychic paper, that's what we need" she reached her hand into the Doctor's coat pocket and pulled it out. They felt the TARDIS jolt beneath them as it began to be driven somewhere. It was a strange sensation, one of those rare moments when you really felt the giant room inside the box.

"When did you meet him!" the question tumbled from Rose's mouth before she could stop it. Clara looked at her in surprise.

"Christmas, why?" Clara asked. Rose looked like she wanted to break something.

"This last Christmas" she asked, breathing deeply. "This Christmas just past?" Clara nodded in confirmation. "Great, just great" Rose said bitterly.

"Really?" Clara rolled her eyes and began to unpin her hair, since she was starting to get a headache.

"Where'd you meet him? What trouble could he have possibly got himself into so quickly that you got wrapped up in his world?" Rose demanded, her voice getting higher and higher.

"In a bar. I served him." Clara said, watching Rose in curiosity "Are you all right?"

"No I am not!" she snapped "It just… well… nice you know it only took him a few hours to replace me with the first chick who sells him a drink."

Clara sighed and was ready to snap back when she noticed the tears forming in Rose's eyes. She softened slightly, and despite the jealousy headache she did not miss from her meeting Sarah Jane approached her. "If it's any constellation" she said softly "He was insanely hung up over you"

Before Rose could reply they came to a stop and heard the soldiers walk away. Clara dashed to the doors and stepped out, Rose following. They were in a large warehouse full of boxes and strange alien objects. Clara glanced around her before turning to eye Rose's sweatpants and hoodie critically.

"Here put this on" she whispered, handing her a lab coat discarded to one side "You'll fit in better" Clara already looked smart enough but was beginning to wonder why she took her hair out.

They crept out into a corridor and jogged around a few corners before coming to a large door that opened with ID. Clara pressed the psychic paper to the scanner.

"What do we do?" Rose hissed as the door slid open "Normal people don't share ID!"

Clara straightened her smart white shirt and tossed her loose curls back with a grin. 2I prefer the direct approach" she told Rose, before striding confidently into the room. A large sphere hung at the other end of the room and made both girls feel uneasy. Two boys worked beneath it with their backs to them and a scientist approached them.

"Can I help you?" he asked. Clara turned to him.

"Yes, we're looking for the Doctor!" she said "Has he been down here?"

The man sighed. "Seal the room boys. You two, take a seat" he order. The two at the end of the room and both girls' jaws dropped. Rose stared at her boyfriend and his doppelganger, and Clara stared at Rickey and his doppelganger. Both grinned and pressed their fingers to their lips.

Soon the man, Rajesh, had set up a video call with the woman, Yvonne. They waved at the Doctor through the screen. The Doctor was about to start insulting Jackie again when everything fell apart. Rajesh began freaking out over the sphere existing while something about ghost shifts happened at the Doctor's end.

Mickey and Rickey approached the two confused girls. "Rickey, what's going on" Clara asked.

"It's alright" Rickey assured her "We beat them once we can do it again!" Mickey nodded in agreement and lifted a huge gun.

"Beat what?" Rose asked, while Clara's eyes widened in realisation.

"We had them beaten, but then they escaped. The Cybermen just vanished. They found a way through to this world, but so did we." Rickey explained to her while Mickey filled Rose in on the whole _that's me from a parallel universe, he just sort of showed up one day. _

"The Doctor said that was impossible." Clara said, eyes fixed on the sphere.

"Yeah, it's not the first time he's been wrong." Mickey snorted.

"What's inside that sphere?" Rose asked.

"No one knows. Cyber Leader, Cyber King, Emperor of the Cybermen. Whatever it is, he's dead meat." Rickey said confidently, raising the gun.

"It's good to see you." Clara said with a smile, confident that Rickey could stop the Cybermen again.

"Yeah. It's good to see you too." He said. Mickey and Clara quickly introduced themselves while Rose eyed Rickey wearily.

The sphere began to crack open, so the boys raised their guns. "This is going to blast them to Hell."

In a blaze of light the sphere slowly disappeared. Then four large pepperpot things glided out of it and towards them.

"That's not Cybermen." Mickey said in horror.

"Oh, my God." Was all Rose could say. The black dalek moved forwards.

"Location, Earth. Life forms detected. Exterminate!" it rasped, and the others joined in.

"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The words pressed themselves into every corner of Clara's brain. The floor fell away from under her feet and she had a strange sensation of falling, before her world went black.

**Please Review! **


	13. Answers and Daleks

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who!**

Chapter 13

"What's down there? They were in that room with the sphere. What's happened to Rose?" Jackie demanded of the Doctor.

"I don't know. I'll find her. I brought you here, I'll get you both out, you and your daughter." The Doctor said. Jackie nodded much to his surprise. He had expected her to argue.

"You love her" Jackie said "That Clara girl, you're in love with her" the Doctor opened his mouth to protest "Don't deny it, you do even if you haven't realised it yet. And you'll do anything to save her. Which means saving Rose too"

The Doctor thought this over. He remembered how it felt that night by the lake, or when they danced at derillium. How she smiled, and how he had though, yes. Yes this girl was different.

He would do anything to save her, which of course meant saving Rose.

Rose watched Clara crumple to the floor and Rickey kneel beside her. The daleks did not stop, only kept trundling towards them preparing to exterminate. So since the current companion was currently useless in this crisis, she yelled "Daleks!" To her immense relief the stopped so she continued. "You're called Daleks. I know your name. Think about it how can I know that? A human who knows about the Daleks and the Time War. If you want to know how, then keep us alive. That's all I'm asking. Me and my friends."

"Yeah, Daleks. Time War. Me too." Mickey and Rickey said, realising this was the way to save them.

"Yeah. And me." Seconded Rajesh

"You will be necessary." The black dalek decided before turning to the others "Report. What is the status of the Genesis Ark?"

They were all gathered around a contraption box thing. "Status, hibernation." One of the daleks said.

"Commence awakening. The Genesis Ark must be protected above all else." They all moved towards it and the humans stepped back. Rickey hauled Clara up and pulled her back, so she hung limply at his side.

"The Daleks. You said they were all dead." Mickey hissed at Rose.

"Never mind that. What the hell's a Genesis Ark?" she asked. No one was able to answer that question, so they waited. Eventually the black dalek turned around.

"Which of you is least important?" it demanded, its eye stalk moving from each of them. It rested on Clara's unconscious body for a moment, but moved on without comment.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rose asked in a shaky voice. The question was repeated. "No, we don't work like that. None of us."

"Designate the least important!" the black Dalek screeched. Then Rajesh stepped forward.

"This is my responsibility." He said quietly "I er, I represent the Torchwood Institute. Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these four alone."

"You will kneel." Rajesh obeyed, which Rose thought was impressive with his shaking legs. What followed was awful. They took his brain waves and turned him into a dusty corpse.

"His mind spoke of a second species invading Earth infected by the superstition of ghosts." The dalek said, turning to the others.

"You didn't need to kill him!" Rose shouted at them, knowing it was useless.

"Neither did we need him alive." Was the answer they received. Rose buried her face in Mickey's shoulder while the Daleks made contact with the Cybermen.

* * *

_Where am I. I don't know where I am. I don't know where I am!_

_I am not a dalek I am human. I am not a dalek I am human _

Clara's eyes gently fluttered open. She sat up quickly, surprised that nothing hurt. She was in a dim, open space, smoke surrounding her and strange noises coming from far away. This place felt odd, but at the same time, felt familiar.

"You're awake, we need to talk" someone said. Clara whirled around to see someone standing behind her. Only not just someone, herself.

It was this same face, same eyes, same hair only hers was shorter. They looked at each other closely.

"Who are you?" Clara asked "Why do you look like me?"

The girl chuckled. "I'm Clara Oswald. The Impossible Girl. And I don't look like you. _You _look like _me."_

"What's that supposed to mean? And where are we?" Clara demanded, looking around her.

"We're in the timestream. And I need to talk to you" the Impossible girl said. "You've messed up"

"How?" Clara asked "What is going on. This isn't funny! I was at Torchwood!"

"You're dreaming. Sort of" the impossible girl pulled a face. "I felt it. When you changed the timeline I felt it. So when you passed out I pulled you here to have a little chat."

"What do you mean change the timeline? Who's timeline?"

"The Doctor's" she said gravely "And you have to fix it."

"You need to start explaining yourself!" Clara shouted "What is happening?"

"Ok, please" the impossible girl held her hands up "I travelled with the Doctor. In his future. And one day, the Great Intelligence, they jumped into his timestream. Where we are now. They destroyed his at every single point of his life."

"But I travel with him now" Clara said "He hasn't died"

"You're not supposed to travel with him. I followed the great intelligence, ripped myself into a hundred thousand different copies of myself. That's what you are. A copy of me, designed to save the Doctor."

Clara felt anger boil up inside of her. "I am not a copy of anyone!" she said dangerously "I am real!"

"See, right there" the impossible girl, slowly walking closer "You're mind, it knows you're not real. Well, that you're not supposed to be real."

"What do you mean, _supposed?" _Clara spat, thinking this girl had some nerve, but also knowing deep down she was right.

"You were meant to say no. You were meant to tell him to stop being an idiot and go get Rose Tyler back. Only there was a glitch. Your instinct, the drive implanted inside of you the moment you dropped into existence, to make him continue on his path, it faded out of you and you said yes" she said "and now you have to change it back"

"How can I do that?" Clara asked suspiciously "No way are you sending me back in time" she said, stepping away with her hands up. Impossible girl rolled her eyes.

"The Doctor is going to find a way to stop the cybermen by sucking them into the void. When he does, you must follow. Then the timeline can continue, and he might just appreciate us a little more in the future." Impossible girl said simply. Clara gritted her teeth.

"No." she said determinedly.

"You have to." Impossible girl said "Please. I know he shows you fantastic things, and I know he's amazing but his life. You're not a part of it yet. One day, you will be. And he'll show you the most incredible things" her eyes shone "Rings of Akhatten, Hedgewick's World of Wonders, Gallifrey!"

Clara sighed. "Gallifrey burned."

"We saved it. Him, me and then the other two Doctor's" she said dismissively "The point is, I know he's the most incredible person you've ever met and I know you're dazzled by him-"

Clara cut her off with a laugh. "Dazzled?" she scoffed "I'm in love with him!" this seemed to finally stun her.

"No you don't!" was her gaping response "You can't!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clara snapped.

"You just-" the Impossible girl struggled for words. Then she sighed and laughed softly. "Oh I don't know. It's not fair anyway." She sunk to the ground, hugging her knees.

"What's not fair?" Clara asked, sinking down beside her. The world was suddenly quiet around them. The mist climbed up to her knees and hugged her life a comfort blanket. Despite it being slightly creepy here, it felt like home.

"Just how it worked out isn't it. You have to die, you're supposed to die. Sounds awful but it's true." She murmured. "I don't remember it myself. He took it from my mind. I'm dreaming now, just to try and get you to fix it"

"Why can't I stay with him?" Clara asked her "I love him, I really do. Who cares where it winds up?"

"It all matters." Something burned in her eyes unbelievably fiercely, but Clara wouldn't back down. "Everywhere he goes; every moment he lives we work to stop the only thing he has never truly been able to stop."

"Do they, us, you, oh whatever" the pronouns were starting to make her head spin. Clara breathed deeply "Do they remember him? All those things I see sometimes."

"I'll bet they give you pounding headaches." Clara nodded "Yeah, that's the memories. No, we don't usually remember, it would draw too much attention. Usually you'd only get a feeling you had to play things around him perfectly. But you've been exposed to him for a long time and played a significant part in his timeline. You'll remember things that didn't happen to you particularly, just another version of yourself. What do you remember?" she asked curiously.

"Stuff. Don't like Sarah Jane or Rose. Strong memories when I saw people butchering people for body parts. Um… that school we went too, daleks, oh my god Daleks!" Clara gasped as she was hit with an onslaught of memories.

"Yeah. You will never really like companions, you're jealous because he saw them but not you. The connection between you and me is strong that's why you remember the stuff from Victorian London… but now you have to go. Join him. I really hope you have the strength to let go, quite literally" The Impossible Girl said as they stood "You can't stay. One day you _must _leave him in order to meet him in the first place. Today, because if you don't… You will never be the same again" she looked right into Clara's eyes. "You won't remember this, but now that you've been here your other lives will start to mix inside your head. You'll know things you shouldn't. That's why you have to die. You're smart. You know that."

"I always was a genius" Clara snorted. The impossible girl laughed.

"Good bye Clara Oswald. Tell that clever boy to run and remember."

* * *

Rose looked up at her boyfriend, so fearless even though all this stuff had never really been a part of his world. "You're the bravest man I've ever met." She told him earnestly. He smiled.

"What about the Doctor?" he smirked, but she only shook her head. Before he could answer Rickey approached them with a fiannly conscious Clara.

"You ok?" Rose asked her, because she really didn't look it. Her eyes was bright but confused and she looked exhausted.

"Yeah I just" Clara held a hand to her pounding head. They all turned to Mickey who was waiting to speak.

"I can't think what the Daleks need with me. I'm nothing to them." Mickey said in confusion. Rose swallowed.

"You could be… like well the motivation. Whatever's inside that Ark is waking up, and I've seen this happen before." She thought back to the chained last dalek and thought of Mickey being exterminated. "The first time I saw a Dalek, it was broken. It was dying. But I touched it. The moment I did that, I brought it back to life. As the Doctor said, when you travel in time in the Tardis, you soak up all this background radiation. It's harmless. It's just there. But in the Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use it as a power supply."

"I love it when you talk technical." Mickey grinned and Rose hit him playfully, despite the ultimately dangerous situation.

"Shut up. If the Daleks have got something inside that thing, and it needs waking up." Rose concluded

"They need you or Clara." Mickey realised "And they'll threaten to kill me and Rickey if you don't"

"But why would you built something you couldn't open yourselves?" Rickey asked the daleks.

"The technology is stolen. The Ark is not of Dalek design." The black dalek said, turning to face them.

"Then who built it?" Rose asked. It was strange to be back negotiating with aliens, but Clara looked far too dazed to do it.

"The Time Lords. This is all that survives of their Home World."

"What's inside?" Clara asked, suddenly more alert. She still leaned heavily against Rickey, but there was a touch of desperation to her tone.

"The future." With these words, the four daleks disconnected from the ark and turned to the four humans. "Final stage of awakening."

The black dalek looked right at Rose "Your handprint will open the Ark."

"Well tough, because I'm not doing it." She said bravely. She expected them to move onto Clara, but they seemed unfazed by her presence the entire time.

"Obey or the male will die." It threatened, pointing its gun at Mickey. She looked at him hopelessly.

"I can't let them." She explained, stepping forward. He protested but she didn't listen. "All right! You're going to kill us anyway, so what the hell? If you er, escaped the Time War, don't you want to know what happened?"

"Place your hand" the black dalek began to repeat.

"What happened to the Emperor?" this peaked everyone, strangely enough even Clara's interest.

"The Emperor survived?" she asked in confusion. Everyone, including the daleks turned to look at her.

"Till he met me. Because if these are going to be my last words, then you're going to listen. I met the Emperor, and I took the Time Vortex and I pulled it into his head and turned him into dust. Do you get that? The God of all Daleks, and I destroyed him. Ha!"

This infuriated the daleks and they began to screech "You will be exterminated!" Clara's head began to spin, so she got down on her knees, right by the black dalek. She didn't seem to notice its gun was right next to her head but neither did it.

Rickey was debating whether or not to pull her away when the Doctor swaggered in wearing the 3D glasses. "Oh now, hold on, wait a minute." He looked at the gun and Clara in panic "No, No, No!"

"Alert, alert. You are the Doctor." The black dalek said. "Sensors report he is unarmed."

"That's me. Always." The Doctor said, almost cheerfully but his eyes still fixed on a dizzy Clara.

"Then you are powerless." The daleks concluded.

"Not me. Never." He replied "Now I swear to god if you hurt Clara-"

If a dalek could look confused, it did. They looked at one another and down at her. "We would not hurt her" the black dalek said slowly "We would not hurt her"

"Why not?" the Doctor asked as she clambered up into his waiting arms.

The daleks paused. Then their reply made everyone's insides freeze. "Because she is one of us!"

**Please Review!**


	14. Let Go

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 14

Silence fell over the room. Every eye was fixed on Clara, whose eyes were wide and face was white. You are one of us. The words echoed around her mind, memories and voices and images jumping forwards. Daleks. She could see them. She remembered all the things they'd done, the time war, all their thoughts, their evil. She could remember it. But she couldn't be one of them. She was human. Not Dalek, human! She had a childhood, parents (Well sort of), she was compassionate and she loved the Doctor she didn't hate him.

"One of you!" She spat, stepping forward and drawing herself up to her full, rather unimpressive, height "I am not one of you! I am human. Flesh and blood and emotion! I am not a Dalek" the Daleks eyestalk was about level with her head and stared unwavering at her.

After a moment both the Doctor and one of the other Daleks came forward. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at her and pressed a button while the Dalek said "scanning" his eyestalk moved up and down her body. "Results: Ordinary human, female"

"See" the Doctor said "I have the same. Like she said, flesh and blood"

"But we detect Dalek in her" the black Dalek insisted. "And the Daleks do not harm their own kind, unless they stand in the way of the future" Every eyestalk fixed on her and she felt a uncomfortable feeling settle at the bottom of her stomach. Then they turned to the Doctor. "How did you survive the Time War?"

"By fighting. On the front line. I was there at the fall of Arcadia. Someday I might even come to terms with that. But you lot ran away!" The Doctor lowered his screwdriver and tore his concerned eyes from Clara. She was still staring at the Daleks.

"We had to survive" the black Dalek said.

"The last four Daleks in existence. So what's so special about you?" The Doctor asked, wandering from side to side, trying to get into a good position.

"Doctor," Rose's voice startled him, he'd almost forgotten her. "they've got names. I mean, Daleks don't have names, do they? One of them said they" the Doctor frowned at this. The one of the Daleks came forwards.

"I am Dalek Thay." He said.

"Dalek Sek." The black Dalek repeated.

"Dalek Jast."

"Dalek Caan."

At these some idea began to form in the Doctors mind, but Clara got there first. "Cult of Skaro" she murmured, and Rose and Mickey looked at her in fear, while the Doctors head began to spin. She was human, he was cirtain she was human. She just had to be human.

"So that's it! At last. The Cult of Skaro. I thought you were just a legend."

"Who are they?" Rose asked, though she didn't sound sure she wanted to know. Clara opened her mouth to answer, but her eyes were wide with terror and the Doctor jumped in first.

"A secret order above and beyond the Emperor himself. Their job was to imagine, think as the enemy thinks. Even dared to have names. All to find new ways of killing." His eyes darkened and his tone conveyed his disgust.

"But that thing," Mickey gestured to the genesis arc "They said it was yours. I mean, Time Lords. They built it. What does it do?"

"I don't know. Never seen it before." The Doctor shrugged.

"But it's Time Lord." Rose protested in frustration.

"Both sides had secrets." Clara muttered. A picture in her mind of a old man, older then old, walking towards a barn across a desert land under what was once a beautiful sky with a sack over his shoulder. A bag that held destruction. The greatest secret.

"What is it? What have you done?" The Doctor demanded, oblivious to what his companion could see of his past.

"Time Lord science will restore Dalek supremacy." The black Dalek informed them. The Doctor was getting increasingly frustrated.

"What does that mean? What sort of Time Lord science? What do you mean?"

"One touch of a time traveller" Clara whispered. "Touch. The one thing a Dalek can't do."

"Sealed inside your casing. Not feeling anything ever, from birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage. Completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream." The Doctor said, staring down at the angry creatures.

"The Doctor will open the Ark!" It ordered, as if that was going to help. Clara wanted to laugh.

"The Doctor will not." Clara watched, fighting back the tsunami of images crashing through her mind. She was a bit out of it, and before she could collect herself the door was blown open and chaos was descending as Cybermen and people with guns raced inside.

"Jake!" Clara said in surprise as the handsome boy wrapped his arm around her.

"Hello lovely girl" he grinned cheekily "let's get out of here shall we?" He suggested, pulling her out the door to where the Doctor stood hurrying them all along. They watched as Rose stumbled and Pete helped her to her feet.

"Oh my god!" She said staring at him frozen "your my dad"

"Hello, Rose right?" Pete said. She only nodded, completely shocked. "Come on!" They moved to get out but the Daleks and the Cybermen jostled them and Roses hand hit the genesis arc in attempt to get away. The Doctor closed the door behind them and she turned to him panic stricken.

"I didn't mean to I swear I just-" Clara grabbed her arm and tugged her down the corridor.

"Rose, if you hadn't opened it for them, they would've tried to do it by force which wouldn't have ended well for the entire planet." Clara said. The Doctor suddenly stopped and spun around, alarming them all and making them trip over each other.

"How do you know that?" He asked. His voice was deadly calm and his eyes burned with something so terrible none of them could bare to look, except Clara who stared right back, her own eyes flashing time stream gold. He didn't seem to notice that though.

"I don't know." She said steadily "but I am not a Dalek."

"How do I know that!" The Doctor suddenly shouted, making her flinch "You're smart. You're not your parents daughter. And Daleks don't just randomly assume people as one of them and choose not to hurt them!"

"I am not a Dalek I am human" Clara screamed, stretching onto her tiptoes to get closer to his face, tears springing to her eyes.

"Then what are you!" He screamed back, and for a moment his face showed just how hurt he was. Hurt by the fact he had fallen for another one, only to be tricked.

"I'm a barmaid!" Clara yelled "I'm a barmaid who has seen the stars, alien planets and moments in time. I see wonders with you Doctor and I have known you far a while, I know you are haunted by your past and have done terrible things, so you try to save people and do good. And I know I am not a Dalek because I feel. I have never thought to destroy you, or hate you in any kind of way!" Tears fell over her cheeks and the Doctor just stared at her. Then he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.

"I'm sorry. I just had to be sure" he murmured. Clara didn't believe he was letting the whole knowing stuff thing go but the moment was nice.

Meanwhile Pete and Rose were staring at each other. "You're alive" was the only thing she seemed to be able to say while Pete explained how he was from a parallel universe and everything. Eventually Rickey cleared his throat and Clara and Rose turned to glare at him. He held his arms up.

"Cybermen, Daleks!" He pointed out defensively and they were suddenly running came across Jackie in another corridor and she and Pete had a strange reunion, which Clara felt the man was taking spectacularly well considering a daughter and his dead daughter had been thrown at him in the space of a few minutes. After the Daleks and the Cybermen had a showdown they all clambered into the lift to get to the top and see what Time-Lord science the genesis arc was. They all watched in horror from the top of Canary Wharf as it began to spin and shoot Daleks all over the city.

"It's bigger on the inside" the Doctor groaned "a prison ship"

"Millions of Daleks and Cybermen all over London. That is definitely not good!" Clara said, watching the Daleks spread.

Pete seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he pulled one of the yellow transporters out of his pocket and said "I'm sorry, but you've had it. This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do. We're going home." He handed them to his wife and daughter "Jacks, Rose, take these. "You're coming with us."

"But they're destroying the city." Jackie pointed out, unsure how he expected them to just leave their home in ruins.

"I'd forgotten you could argue." Pete chuckled before becoming serious again. "It's not just London, it's the whole world. But there's another world just waiting for you, Jacks. And it's safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?"

The Doctor spun around with his 3D glasses and grinned at them "Oh, I'm ready. I've got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood." He jumped at a computer "Slam it down and close off both universes."

"Reboot systems." The computer said as it powered up.

"But we can't just leave. What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?" Rose argued as everyone walked around getting ready. Clara was stood to the side.

"They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution." He grinned at Clara who was starting to grin.

"What's with the glasses?" She smirked, knowing that was the question he needed to be asked.

"I can see, that's what." The Doctor said gleefully "because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void. Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look." He pulled the glasses off and stuck them on Clara's nose. She looked at the green particles surrounding them all except for Rose, Mickey and Jackie.

"We've been through. When the TARDIS died" Clara realised with a smile, looking at her own hand. "What is it? Like... Background radiation?"

"Yeah that's it" the Doctor grinned "Void Stuff. But the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside."

"Pulling them all in!" Clara laughed out loud and jumped up and down so hard her heal threatened to snap. Then she was hit with something. "Hang on, we're covered in the stuff too. We'll get pulled in along with the Daleks and Cybermen"

"So you have to go" the Doctor slipped one of the medallions around her neck.

"Reboot in two minutes." The computer said.

"Back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side." The Doctor told her.

"And then you close it, for good?" Pete asked.

"The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput." He said without any of the enthusiasm from a moment ago.

"And you're just staying here?" Clara demanded angrily "No way! I'm with you, all the way. Those clamp things" She gestured to the mangaclamps "there's two of them. We'll hold on tight" the Doctor opened his mouth to argue but she got there first "No. You can't. I have nothing on that side. I don't want anything if I can't have you!"

The Doctor stared down at them. Then Rose touched his arm. "Let her stay. You need her. And she needs you" she said and forced a smile. "Take it from someone who has been sent away from you. It's not worth arguing. She'll just come back." He sighed and Clara smiled in triumph. "Goodbye" Rose whispered. "And thank you"

"Thank you Rose Tyler" he said sincerely. She smiled at him with wet eyes, and then she was gone with the others.

"Systems rebooted. Open access." The computer said. The Doctor and Clara jumped into action.

"Those coordinates over there, set them all at six. And hurry up." The Doctor told her. She ran to the terminal and tossed the medallion aside.

"Levers operational." The computer said. He tossed her a mangaclamp and they placed them on opposite walls by the levers, pressing the red buttons.

"When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?" He grinned at her and she grinned back. "Let's do it!"

They pushed the levers up and grabbed the clamps. The computer declared it online, the breach lit up and the Daleks and Cybermen began flying into the void. It was all fine. Everything was going smoothly until the most awful feeling swept over Clara.

She had to let go. She had to go to the void. The thought began to consume everything. Let go. Let go. She didn't want to. She wanted to stay with him and see wanders. She wanted to be his impossible girl. But she had to let go. Images flashed across her mind.

Dying. It would be quick, then her body would break apart and fly to another time and place. She'd done it thousands of times. This one would be no different. He had a future that was far more important then her own. But why? The reasons behind hundreds of thousands of lifetimes slipped away so quickly.

Slowly Clara felt the pictures of her death, the future he needed, take over her body. Her resolve began to melt and her grip weakened. She was going to die. Her own instinct, her own mind, body, would kill her.

But that wasn't fair. She really loved him, and a part of her was sure he loved her too. He needed her to stay this time, not to give her life for no clear reason. Fighting with all her strength Clara forced the memories to the front of her mind. His face in the bar. Their first trip in the TARDIS. Him catching her as Cassandra left her body. Him grabbing her hand as they ran from aliens. Messing around when making soufflés. His funny smile. They way he said her name. The ice plant. Dancing at Derrilium. The fight was impossible. But she loved him too much to let go.

**Please Review!**


	15. Genetic Transfer? I think not

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

**Hi, thank you for all you lovely reviews. On we go into season 3! I'm going straight in, so in this story the Doctor did have his experience with the runaway bride, but Clara wasn't there. Clara is remembering things from her other lives but she doesn't actually remember the reason why. She's clueless at the moment. Just to clarify, Clara's echo is only remembering these things because traveling with the Doctor is exposing her to his time stream a lot! Keep reviewing. Thanks for all your support!**

Chapter 15

Clara had known letting the Doctor be the patient at the hospital they were checking out was bad idea. She had argued that they were going to have a real problem if someone decided to check his heartbeat, but he had been insistent, so it was him lying in the hospital bed surrounded by medical students being tested for 'severe abdominal pains' rather then her. The man, Mr Stoker or something, asked a student Jones to examine him, and Clara looked up at the dark skinned woman for long enough to be hit with the very same burning envy she felt whenever she looked at Sarah Jane, only one thousand times worse. It came completely out of no where, her hatred for this pretty young medical student leaning over the Doctor with a stethoscope. The Doctor eyed her with interest, which didn't make Clara feel any better.

"That wasn't very clever, running around outside, was it?" Jones said to him as she went to check his heartbeat. The action made Clara want to punch both the Doctor, she had said this would happen, and the woman, she still wasn't sure why. She wondered what she meant by him that morning, since she had been right here with him the whole time and he hadn't moved from the bed.

"Sorry?" The Doctor seemed to be about as confused as she was.

"On Chancellor Street this morning? You came up to me and took your tie off." Jones said, as if this obscure explanation would clear it all up.

"Really? What did I do that for?" The Doctor asked her with a frown. Clara glued her eyes to her phone, fighting hard to stay calm. Enduring images of wars she had not been him, knowledge of places and races she had never seen or come across was harder then hiding her sudden strong dislike for Miss Jones. She tuned out for a while, texting Nina and Rory her two friends and wondering how long until the Doctor got bored and took her somewhere actually exciting. It was like her mouth was in auto pilot as it answered a question she hadn't heard with the words "Benjamin Franklin" without looking up. She finally put her phone down when the students walked away, but she didn't miss the grin the Doctor and Jones shared. He looked up at her and frowned, noticing her gritted teeth and balled fists.

"You alright?" He asked with genuine concern that softened Clara's random anger. She nodded and laced his fingers with hers, asking him further about the discovery of static electricity, not actually knowing anything.

* * *

Martha Jones was actually standing on the moon. She was still trying to wrap her head around that idea, and probably would be panicking if it weren't for the screaming patients around her in need of attention. She raced back into the orthopaedic ward saying "All right now, everyone back to bed, we've got an emergency but we'll sort it out. Don't worry." She sincerely hoped that were true, only she could not think of anything worse then this situation, or any way of getting out of it. She walked over to the window murmuring "It's real. It's really real." In disbelief. They were on the moon. Not on the earth, where she had lived and breathed every day of her life since she was born. Air. The thought suddenly came to her and she reached to open the window saying "Hold on"

"Don't! We'll lose all the air." Her friend cried desperately, but that seemed unlikely.

"But they're not exactly air tight." Martha pointed out "If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?" She didn't think anyone was going to answer her question, but at that moment one of the curtains was swung aside and the man, John Smith, the one with double heartbeat stepped forward now dressed in a nice blue suit and converse sneakers. Behind him stood that girl from earlier, the one who Martha was sure had gold flashing on her eyes. She wore a red skirt and leather jacket, had her hair pulled up in a ponytail and would had been very pretty if not for the shadows under her eyes that said she needed lots more sleep and the unattractive glare aimed Martha's way.

"Very good point. Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?" John Smith asked her. She immediately answered.

"Martha."

"And it was Jones, wasn't it? Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?" He raised his eyebrows and the girls glare intensified behind him.

"We can't be." Her friend wailed.

"Obviously we are, so don't waste my time." John Smith snapped before turning away "Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or-"

"By the patients' lounge, yeah." She answered eagerly, not entirely sure why she was listening to this strange man, or helping him out.

"Fancy going out?" He asked her, raising his eyebrows as if he were daring her to back down.

"Okay." She said slowly, fairly certain that if they weren't dead inside they wouldn't be outside.

"We might die." He said, again daring her to run and hide.

"We might not." She said, presenting her own challenge. This seemed to satisfy him.

"Good. Come on." He smiled and moved to leave the ward before remembering something and turning around. The look he gave the girl behind him was so special it made Martha feel very guilty about fancying this man for a moment as he asked "Are you coming Impossible Girl?" The look she gave Martha was so venomous it made all guilty feelings vanish.

"No thanks" she scowled and turned her heal, going to calm some of the patients. The Doctor looked confused by her actions, but went with Martha out onto the balcony anyway. They took deep breaths until finally Martha said "We've got air. How does that work?"

"Just be glad it does." The Doctor said. Martha stared at the earth hanging in the sky above them, and the enormity of the situation crashed down on her. She was standing on the moon. Not the earth. She couldn't just waltz home to get ready for Leo's party at the end of the day.

"I've got a party tonight. It's my brother's twenty first. My mother's going to be really, really" she began to get slightly emotional, which he somehow picked up on.

"You okay?" He asked and she nodded telling him she was sure. When he proposed she go back inside she said

"No way. I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same, it's beautiful."

"Do you think?" He made it sound like seeing the earth hanging in the sky from the moon was an ordinary thing.

"How many people want to go to the moon? And here we are." She laughed out loud. "What do you think happened?" She asked seriously, thinking no matter how beautiful, she wanted to get home somehow.

"What do you think?" He asked her. She thought back to all the strange things that had happened in the last few years.

"Extraterrestrial." She decided "It's got to be. I don't know, a few years ago that would have sounded mad, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben, Christmas, those Cybermen things." She thought of her cousin, the one who could have been her twin, dead after that day. "I had a cousin. Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home."

"I'm sorry." He said.

"Yeah." Was all she trusted herself to say. She didn't have time to break down now. She expected that to be the end of it, but he surprised her.

"I was there, in the battle." He said "Me and Clara were there" his eyes looked so far away, and in that moment Martha could see him as nothing other then a patient she had to look after.

"I promise you, Mister Smith," she said in her most confident voice "we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way."

He was a lot more confident then she was, because he wasn't really John Smith, he was some kind of Doctor and he recognised the weird rhino alien things that came marching into the hospital. As soon as he saw them they were running from the balcony and back to the ward to find the girl he had called Impossible, or Clara something.

* * *

They all crouched above the lobby, watching the Jadoon catalogue the humans in the hospital. Clara wasn't too interested by this, she was too preoccupied by Martha. No matter how much she wanted to tell the woman to shove off because she and the Doctor had it covered, she couldn't. Some part of her insisted that Martha had to stay.

They moved onto checking the computer bases, Clara doing the hacking while the Doctor soniced it. He explained to her about not being human and the sonic screwdriver which made Clara's blood boil since it looked like Martha was in it for the long haul.

Martha ran to check on Mr Stoker, only was horrified to find Mrs Finnegan drinking his blood. She raced out of the room away from the motorbike men and right into Clara and the Doctor. He looked pleased with himself and she looked downright bored.

"I've restored the back-up." He announced, holding up the machine.

"I found her." Martha said quite suddenly. Clara's head snapped up and her eyes were bright very suddenly.

"What?" She said, uttering the first word to Martha all day. At that moment the motorbike men broke down the door and they were running away from them as fast as they could.

All in all it was a very long day. They spent most of it running from the plasmavore and the Jadoon, then the Doctor fried his sonic screwdriver by accident, which Clara found rather funny (he loved that thing far too much) and then the oxygen began to run out in the hospital. However the highlight of the evening was when the Doctor had to buy himself some time to stop the Jadoon from walking in on the plasmavore before she could drink his blood.

"Clara, Martha, stay here. I need time. You've got to hold them up." He said, turning to the MRI department.

"Well if you have any suggestions, we're all ears" Clara said, hands on her knees as she tried to catch air. She was beginning to struggle to breath easily despite being quite fit and running was not helping even though the adrenaline, like Martha said, kept her going.

The Doctor turned to her and grabbed her on the shoulders and said "Clara, we'll figure this one out later!"

Then he kissed her. Long and hard, right on the lips. It was warm, like he really meant it, yet he was trying to save the earth so it was a little bit rushed. Still, in that moment the hospital and the danger around them melted away, fireworks exploded in front of her eyes and something like electricity spread from her lips to the ends of her fingers and toes.

Martha had felt her attraction to the Doctor slowly dissolving since they came across Clara. It was hard to fancy a guy who was quite obviously in love with the girl who stood beside him. She was harder to read, even if he was the alien, but Martha was almost certain Clara felt the same way. That kiss sealed the deal, even if it caught Clara completely off her was in some sort of shock, fingers to her lips and far as Martha was aware, not breathing.

"Find the non-human. Execute." The Jadoon said so Martha, feeling rather brave, stepped forward in attempt to make them listen.

"Now listen, I know who you're looking for. She's this woman. She calls herself Florence." She was cut off by the scanner in her face. It confirmed she was human, before moving on to Clara.

"Human and Non-human" was the inconclusive result. "Authorise full scan" Clara finally came to her senses as the Jadoon shoved her against the wall and demanded "What are you? What are you?"

Clara looked up at them, eyes defiantly a brighter gold then they had been earlier and muttered "Impossible"

Martha wasn't sure if that was an actual answer. Either way, after a few minutes Clara's eyes were back to golden brown and they confirmed her human, heading her a strange booklet for compensation. The Jadoon moved into the MRI room, and Martha was about to follow when she noticed Clara falling to the floor. She crouched beside her, finding her pulse. It was basically non existent.

"Clara!" She said "Clara what's wrong. I have to help you. The Doctor-"

"Forget me!" Clara snapped even though her eyes were drifting shut "Save him. Don't waste air on me. You have to save the Doctor. Do it because I can't Martha Jones"

Martha felt incredibly guilty leaving Clara slumped in the corridor, and wasn't entirely sure how she could possibly have known the Doctor was dead. She arrived in time to see them obliterate Florence and confirm the Doctor as dead. The Jadoon left, and she felt an immense sense of accomplishment wash over her as she saw the Doctors eyes open before her world went black.

The Doctor heard Martha breath the words "The scanner, she did something" before passing out. He pulled apart the cables that Florence had plugged together and the scanner switched off. He heard the Jadoon spaceships leave the surface of the earth as he scooped Martha up, wandering where Clara was. Panic filled him as he found her lying in the hall, not visibly breathing. He gently placed Martha in a nearby chair before picking up Clara. He lowered his ear to her mouth to see if she was still alive, fear rising in his chest.

She drew a shallow breath to say something, before the sound of rain on the windows interrupted her. She forced her eyes open and looked at his concerned face. "It's raining on the moon" she murmured.

The Doctor gave a relieved smile as with a crash of thunder and flash of lightning, they were returned to London. Clara's cheeks flushed red again as she breathed in. The Doctor carefully set her on her feet and they left the hospital in silence.

* * *

Clara came into the TARDIS console room after much needed rest and shower. The Doctor smiled at her, glad she was breathing and alive. "Look!" He cried in childlike delight, holding up his new sonic screwdriver "Brand new! Got all sorts of new settings"

She curled up in the chair to one side, staring at him whilst chewing her lip. The Doctor immediately picked up that something was wrong and sat down beside her. He said nothing, and after a few minutes Clara finally spoke.

"Do you believe I'm human?" She asked, looking at him "Do you genuinely believe I'm a ordinary human girl, not some trap for you or a evil alien?"

The Doctor sighed. "I don't want to believe" he said "but Daleks don't just assume people as one of their own, and ordinary humans don't know the things you do. They can't. It would be like putting a time lords mind in a humans body, it would burn up."

"I'm not a Dalek I am human" Clara said her little mantra for the a thousandth time "and the things I know. I swear to god they come out of nowhere. I don't know why the Daleks thought I was one of them..." She trailed off as a thought came to her "That kiss... I assumed it was a genetic transfer, but the Daleks and everything... They were confused as to whether I was human or not just like the Jadoon. So a genetic transfer wasn't necessary." She couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face "You kissed me"

The Doctor looked guilty. "Do you mind? I figured if I was going to die..." Clara laughed.

"Course I don't mind. And you weren't going to die. Not in a hospital where Martha Jones worked" Clara pecked him quickly on the lips, taking him by surprise "Speaking of which, you better go get her"

"Get her?" The Doctor looked confused "She's coming with us?"

"Duh" Clara rolled her eyes like it was obvious "You can't leave that kind of impression on someone and never come back. It's not fair"

"But I thought you didn't like her" the Doctor said in confusion "you didn't act like you did"

"That's not the point" Clara argued "I can put up with her. Hey, maybe she'll grow on me. But she _must _come with us"

"Right... Ok..." The Doctor resolved to just go with it. Maybe it was a girl thing "One trip. Then back to just you and me"

Clara grinned. "Great!" She began to waltz down the corridor in search of some new shoes, but stopped and looked over her shoulder at the Doctor who was preparing to go outside and save Martha from her family. "By the way, I told you it was snogbox!"

**Please Review**


	16. Shakespeare and Witches

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 16

Clara had always been a genius. She could hack any computer programme, and she observant of the world around her. However, this genius hadn't really stretched to maths and science and history. Although bright, she had never been bothered to try hard, always living with a subconscious belief that she was meant for something else. So she chatted and texted and messed around in every single one of her classes, apart from the few she actually enjoyed, much to the frustration of her teachers and parents. She received her GCSE results two weeks before she walked from her parent's home. She'd done well in English language, scraped through French, outstanding in English literature and IT and completely failed the rest. After leaving home and taking the job as a barmaid she hadn't gone to college, which meant she couldn't go to university, and she couldn't afford to travel.

If she had gone to university, she would have studied English lit. It was the one thing she had always loved and stuck with. Her English teacher was the only one at her school who believed in her, and it was the only lesson she was dedicated to. So she was pretty excited to be actually in Elizabethan London, standing in front of William Shakespeare himself.

He'd tried to throw them out at first, and Clara was liking Martha more by the minute as she was the reason he let them stay. The best thing was that he was every bit as a genius she had believed him to be, even the Doctor had to admit it. It would have been a perfect trip if it weren't for the random unexpected deaths. Some guy drowned on dry land and then got struck in the heart when there was no body near him. It all seemed weird to Clara, and she didn't believe in witchcraft, but it meant they got to stay another night in Shakespeare's time so she wasn't really complaining.

That was how the three of them found themselves in a rather small room with one bed and wooden dresser. The Doctor thankfully was able to provide them both with toothbrushes.

"So, who's going where? I mean, there's only one bed." Martha pointed out the obvious. Clara was perched on the end and the Doctor was stood by the window.

"Its fine, I won't sleep" they both said at once. They looked at each other in surprise.

"Nope!" The Doctor said in concern "You're sleeping, you spend most your time looking exhausted so you clearly need it." Clara opened her mouth to protest but the Doctor pressed a finger to her lips "I'm a time lord and a Doctor, that beats anything you can come up with"

It was true though. Ever since their trip to Torchwood and the battle of Canary Warf Clara looked as though she was getting little sleep. There were always shadows under her eyes and she had stopped asking for sleep in between adventures. Every few days he would notice and insist she went to bed.

"So, magic and stuff. That's a surprise. It's all a little bit Harry Potter." Martha broke the silence as she climbed up on the bed beside Clara.

"Wait till you read book seven. Oh, I cried." The Doctor said, earning a look from Clara.

"It wasn't that tragic, you're just soft" she rolled her eyes.

"You cant tell me you weren't at least a little upset when Do-" he was cut off by Martha shrieking.

"NO SPOILERS!" Clara jumped so violently it shook the whole mattress "But is it real, though? I mean, witches, black magic and all that, it's real?"

"Course it isn't!" the Doctor laughed as if the idea was obvious. Martha looked slightly put out.

"Well, how am I supposed to know? I've only just started believing in time travel. Give me a break." She said defensivly

"Looks like witchcraft, but it isn't. Can't be. Are you going to stand there all night? There's such a thing as psychic energy, but a human couldn't channel it like that. Not without a generator the size of Taunton and I think we'd have spotted that. No, there's something I'm missing. Something really close, staring me right in the face and I can't see it."

The girls had no answers, so they climbed into bed and blew out the candle, leaving the Doctor alone with his thoughts.

* * *

Clara never wanted to visit a madhouse again after this experience. They all screamed and moaned and the guards whipped them. No matter what Shakespeare's reasoning, she thought the entire idea was horrific.

Streete was not any better than anyone else. He moaned and rocked back and forth, his eyes wide, staring and glassy. They weren't getting much out of him, so the Doctor did the mind thing Clara didn't understand and was slightly scared to ask about.

"Witches spoke to Peter. In the night, they whispered. They whispered. Got Peter to build the Globe to their design. Their design! The fourteen walls. Always fourteen. When the work was done they snapped poor Peter's wits." The architect groaned. At any other time Clara would have chimed in with _its creepy to refer to yourself in the third person._

"Where did Peter see the witches? Where in the city? Peter, tell me. You've got to tell me where were they?" the Doctor demanded.

"All Hallows Street" Peter whispered, and suddenly a woman appeared behind him. She was hideous, old and practically blind wearing old rags. Although Clara knew it wasn't possible, she couldn't think of another word then witch.

"Too many words." She cackled "Just one touch of the heart."

They all backed up, the Doctor shoving Clara behind him and Martha pressing her back to the iron bars as the witch flexed a long, bony finger.

"No!" the Doctor shouted, realising too late what she was about to do and they all watched as she killed Streete with a touch to the chest.

"Witch! I'm seeing a witch!" Shakespeare laughed, eyes fixed on the ugly woman.

"Now, who would be next, hmm? Just one touch. Oh, oh, I'll stop your frantic hearts. Poor, fragile mortals." The witch cackled again, which Clara felt really wasn't helping. Apparently this became too much for Martha who began screaming through the bars.

"Let us out! Let us out!"

"That's not going to work. The whole building's shouting that." The Doctor told her.

"Who will die first, hmm?" the witch asked, taking a step towards them.

"Well, if you're looking for volunteers." The Doctor stepped forwards. Clara's heart rate quickened as she cautiously followed, ready to shove him out the way if necessary.

"No mortal has power over me." The witch laughed as Shakespeare asked if he could stop her. Clara's head began to spin.

"Oh, but there's a power in words. If I can find the right one. If I can just know you." The Doctor frowned and leaned closer.

"None on Earth has knowledge of us."

"Then it's a good thing I'm here. Now think, think, think. Humanoid female, uses shapes and words to channel energy." Images and possibilities Clara hadn't known before began to flash before her eyes, searching for the word that would save him. Then the Doctor shouted "Ah! Fourteen! That's it! Fourteen! The fourteen stars of the Rexel planetary configuration!"

Clara knew he had it already but he was busy being clever and enjoying the look of shock on the witch's face, and she couldn't stand it any longer so she jumped around him and said "I name you Carrionite!"

The witch screamed, before vanishing in flash of light. They all stood in silences

"What did you do?" Martha finally asked.

"She named her. The power of a name. That's old magic." The Doctor murmured. Then he turned to Clara "I really have to figure out how you do that"

* * *

Clara felt that by the end of it she had learnt a lot. Like some witches got a better deal than others, the voodoo one was a lot prettier than the others. That JK Rowling had successfully saved the world hundreds of years before her birth. That Shakespeare had a major crush on Martha. That the famous ruff he wore in the painting was a neck brace. Her favourite by far was finding out that she was going to meet Queen Elizabeth at some point in her future.

After a rather exciting escape they were back in the TARDIS. "Well then Martha Jones, it has been an honour!" the Doctor said "But it is time for us to return you home"

Martha looked disappointed, and even though she wasn't prepared to admit she liked Miss Jones, Clara spoke up anyway. "Aww, c'mon Doctor. One trip to the future? You've taken her to the past already only seems fair." The Doctor cast her a questioning look, but agreed. "Yay!" Clara clapped her hands together.

"How about another planet?" the Doctor suggested, grinning at Martha from over the console.

"Can we go to yours?" Martha asked, jumping up in excitement. Clara watched the smile slide of the Doctor's face.

"Nope, I have an even better idea!" Clara chimed in "Lets go to…" she scanned her brain for any alien planets but the super knowledge was failing her. Instead she went t=with the first place she thought of "New New York!"

"New _New _York?" Martha raised an eyebrow.

"Yup!" Clara smiled "Didn't see much of It last time, we were in a hospital and some psycho took over my body"

"Well, so long as we go to a psycho free zone, no complaints!" Martha grinned, and the Doctor flipped the switch.

**Please Review**


	17. Your Life for What You Love

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**OMG! What did you think of Death in Heaven! I wanted to scream at the end when they were in the café together! Anyway, here's Gridlock, sorry for the wait.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 17

It was raining in the slums. Clara wasn't too impressed considering the view of the city she'd visited on her first trip in the TARDIS had been nothing like the dirty, abandoned street she was stood in now. Add in the fact her shoes really didn't do rain wasn't helping her mood. The rain eventually cleared up and some stalls opened up.

"Customers. Customers! We've got customers!" they shouted.

"We're in business. Mother, open up the Mellow, and the Read."

"Happy, Happy, lovely happy Happy!"

"Anger. Buy some Anger!"

"Get some Mellow. Makes you feel all bendy and soft all day long."

"Don't go to them. They'll rip you off. Do you want some happy?" the final question seemed to be directed at Clara so she smiled and shook her head saying

"I'm good mate" she turned to the Doctor "So they can grow human flesh and sell moods. Is it like drugs?"

"Well" the Doctor pulled a face "In theory, but they mostly fix the not so great side effects so it's legal. I wouldn't go near it if I were you"

A small, pale girl wrapped in grey clothing came out of the shadows and looked at the shouting shop owners with her wide, scary eyes. "Come over here, yeah. And what can I get you, my love?" the shop owner coaxed, drawing the small person to her stall. The Doctor, Clara and Martha drew slightly closer.

"I want to buy Forget." The girl said her voice quiet and sad. If something made her feel like that, Clara couldn't really blaming her for wanting to forget it.

"I've got Forget, my darling. What strength? How much do you want forgetting?" the owner asked.

"It's my mother and father. They went on the motorway." It didn't sound too disastrous to Clara, moterways were fairly harmless apart from the occasional car accident. There was clearly a common thing however.

"Oh, that's a swine. Try this. Forget Forty three. That's two credits." The girl handed over the money in exchange for the small clear patch with the word FORGET 43 printed on it. She was about to do something with it when the Doctor stepped forward.

"Sorry, but hold on a minute. What happened to your parents?" he asked with a frown.

"They drove off." The girl said.

"Yeah, but they might drive back." The Doctor said, his confusion that this hadn't occurred to her already clear.

"Everyone goes to the motorway in the end. I've lost them." She said hopelessly.

"But they can't have gone far. You could find them." The Doctor argued, but the girl clearly wasn't convinced because she pressed the patch to her neck "No. No, no, don't."

A calm look passed over her face and the weighted, distraught expression lifted. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" she asked them politely.  
"Your parents. Your mother and father. They're on the motorway." The Doctor reminded her.

"Are they?" she didn't look too bothered by this news "That's nice. I'm sorry, I won't keep you." She nodded to Clara and Martha before leaving.

"So that's the human race five billion years in the future. Off their heads on chemicals." Martha asked, making Clara laugh. Suddenly two strong arms grabbed her from behind and a woman was pointing a gun to Martha's head. The stalls all immediately closed there hatches without a word.

"I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry. We just need three, that's all." The man said, like he really meant it. Panic and fury crossed the Doctor's face.

"No, let her go! I'm warning you, let her go!" he screamed at the people, who looked quite rightly terrified. Clara took their moment of unease to spike her heal on the man's toes and, with skill she didn't know she had, breaking free by elbowing him in the ribs. He howled in pain, but the woman tightened her grip on Martha and the hauled her off through a green door before either Clara or the Doctor had recovered from the first almost kidnaping. They had locked the door, so the Doctor had to sonic it to burst through and race after them. He was too late however, seeing them fly off in a car, Martha unconscious with them.

After staring after the car, feelings mixing up inside of him (Guilt that Martha had been taken away and relief that Clara hadn't) he headed back to the street. Clara raced up to him, and said "Ok, I spoke to the shop owners. They were car-jackers. You get access to the fast lane on this motorway if you're carrying three adults. There was only two of them so they needed a third. The motorway's that way" she pointed in a direction, and despite the situation the Doctor grinned at her.

"I'm glad you're safe" he whispered, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head. "We brought Martha here, we have to save her"

"Of course we do" Clara rolled her eyes, and dragged him in the direction of the lay by "Come on!"

The amount of cars on the motorway was phenomenal. They stretched out in hundreds of rows, horizontally and verticality and the fumes made Clara feel her lungs were on fire. Thankfully the car parked near them opened up and a figure in a World War 2 flying jacket, helmet and goggles came out.

**"**Hey! You daft little street struts. What are you doing standing there? Either get out or get in. Come on!" he called to them in a Irish accent, and they climbed into the car. The guy turned out to be a cat, and with him was a pretty dark haired women who handed them oxygen masks.

"There's this story, says back in the old days, on Junction forty seven, this woman stood in the exhaust fumes for a solid twenty minutes. By the time they found her, her head had swollen to fifty feet." The cat fellow said, which made Clara feel loads better. The woman laughed.

"Oh, you're making it up." She swatted him playfully.

"A fifty foot head! Just think of it. Imagine picking that nose." He laughed, earning another disapproving but laughing comment from the woman. Suddenly they started moving up ahead, but they only went forward a few yards.

"Twenty yards." The cat confirmed Clara's guess, only his next words surprised her "We're having a good day. And who might you be, sir, madame? Very well-dressed for hitchhikers." He indicated to the Doctors suit and Clara's nice skirt and leather jacket.

"Thanks. Sorry, I'm the Doctor." The Doctor had recovered quicker, so it took Clara a few more deep breaths before she pulled off the mask.

"Clara Oswald" she coughed.

"Medical man! My name's Thomas Kincade Brannigan, and this is the bane of my life, the lovely Valerie."

"Nice to meet you." Valarie said warmly.

"And that's the rest of the family behind you." Brannigan said and the Doctor drew back a curtain to reveal a basket full of small kittens. They were very cute, but Clara didn't think she wanted to know how the biology worked out.

"Ah, that's nice. Hello. How old are they?" the Doctor picked one up and Clara gently stroked it.

"Just two months." Valarie said, her eyes full of the light and love of a mother.

"Poor little souls. They've never known the ground beneath their paws. Children of the motorway." Brannigan said it as if children being born in a car were a fairly common thing.

"What, they were born in here?" the Doctor asked.

"We couldn't stop. We heard there were jobs going, out in the laundries on Fire Island. Thought we'd take a chance." Valarie shrugged.

"So you've been driving for two months." Clara gave a low whistle, unable to imagine staying in this cramped space without going barking mad for longer than a week.

"Do I look like a teenager? We've been driving for twelve years now." Brannigan said with a laugh."Started out as newlyweds. Feels like yesterday."

"Feels like twelve years to me." Valarie laughed, but Clara missed the sweet exchange. Driving for _12 years_? To make it even worse they'd only travelled five miles in that time.

* * *

Valarie and Brannigan refused to risk their children to get down to the fast lane, so the Doctor quickly decided they were going to have to walk down. This involved jumping down through each car, inhaling the fumes. After a very long heated argument as to why Clara was no way staying there, they both went. She hadn't really anticipated how far down it was, and her lungs were on fire soon. They borrowed cloths to cover their mouth and nose half way down, but it didn't help much.

The Doctor opened the hatch to the final car, and Clara dropped through, collapsing to the floor of the car and coughing like crazy, unable to breathe. The Doctor grabbed some water from the gentleman driving the car, and quickly crouched to help her. After several long minutes they were both fairly sure she was not in any immediate danger and she sat up.

"Is this the last layer?" the Doctor asked the man, giving Clara some water.

"We're right at the bottom. Nothing below us but the fast lane." He replied. Like Valarie and Brannigan, the gentleman didn't want to go down, having heard stories about what was down there. The Doctor opened the hatch on the floor and peered into the smoke. For a horrible moment Clara thought he was suggesting they jump, but thankfully he was just looking. The fumes were too thick to see what was causing the noise below, but the Doctor boosted the ventilation to reveal giant crabs he called Macra living below.

"The Macra used to be the scourge of this galaxy. Gas. They fed off gas, the filthier the better. They built up a small empire using humans as slaves and mining gas for food." The Doctor explained.

"They don't exactly look like empire builders to me." The man said as he and Clara gathered around the hatch to get a better look.

"Well, that was billions of years ago. Billions. They must have devolved down the years. Now they're just beasts. But they're still hungry and my friend's down there." The Doctor said. As if Clara wasn't scared enough, a very loud and sudden clang came from the roof and one of the cat nuns dropped into the car. "I've invented a sport."

"Doctor, you're a hard man to find." The cat said with a smile.

"No guns. I'm not having guns." the man exclaimed, staring m=wide eyed at the weapon in the nuns hands.

"I only brought this in case of pirates. Doctor, you've got to come with me." She said urgently. The Doctor didn't recognise her at first but she said "You haven't aged at all. Time has been less kind to me."

"Novice Hame!" he realised "No, hold on, get off. Last time we met, you were breeding humans for experimentation."

"I've sought forgiveness, Doctor, for so many years, under his guidance. And if you come with me, I might finally be able to redeem myself."

"I'm not going anywhere." The Doctor said decisively, wrapping an arm tightly around Clara's waist as he spoke "You've got Macra living underneath this city. Macra! And if my friend's still alive, she's stuck down there."

"You've got to come with me right now." Hame insisted, but the Doctor still refused so she grabbed his wrist and with the word "Transport" beemed herself, the Doctor and Clara away.

* * *

Clara jumped to her feet on the rubbish covered floor. Novice Hame revealed they were in the over-city so the Doctor was demanding to talk to the senate of New New York about the people on the motorway. Only Clara didn't hear any of it. She was looking in horror at the skeleton she could just about make out in the darkness. When Hame turned the lights on the whole room revealed to be covered in them.

"They died Doctor, the city died" she said sadly "Twenty four years"

"How?" Clara demanded, eyes pooling with tears "How could every single one of them have died. Its not right!"

"A new chemical. A new mood. They called it Bliss." Clara looked at the patch on the skeletons neck "Everyone tried it. They couldn't stop. A virus mutated inside the compound and became airborne. Everything perished. Even the virus, in the end. It killed the world in seven minutes flat. There was just enough time to close down the walkways and the flyovers, sealing off the under-city. Those people on the motorway aren't lost, Doctor. They were saved." Hame explained. Clara thought of them all going round and round forever, lost as te rest of their world died in a matter of minutes. "There's not enough power to get them out. We did all we could to stop the system from choking."

"Who's we? How did you survive?" the Doctor asked her suspiciously.

"He protected me. And he has waited for you, these long years." Hame said with a smile.

"Doctor." A voice the Doctor recognised immediately and Clara only vaguely remembered echoed through their minds.

"The Face of Boe!" they ran to the side of his tank.

"I knew you would come." Hame explained how the Face of Boe was giving his own life to keep the under city running and stop it from falling into the sea. He asked him to save them, so the Doctor did. Clara watched as he saved every single person in the under-city and Martha reached safety. She sat by the Face of Boe, staring in wonder at someone who drained his life for others.

"It's not so hard you know" his voice suddenly filled her mind. She glanced at the Doctor and Hame, but they hadn't reacted. "Giving your life to save someone you love"

"You love these people?" she murmured "That much?"

"Prehaps" he said "But I learnt from you"

"What do you mean?" she whispered "I'm not brave or selfless enough to give my life for anyone"

"On the contrary" Boe chuckled "You are one of the bravest, most selfless girls I have ever encountered in my long life. But that is your future, and you must forgive me when we next meet"

"What do you mean?" Clara repeated, but the face of Boe said no more to her before he died. And she couldn't help but feel sad.

* * *

"What did he mean?" Martha asked Clara as they strolled a few feet behind the Doctor on their way back to the TARDIS "The Face of Boe? You are not alone. He has us, is that it?"

"I don't think so" Clara said with a small smile "Sorry"

"Then what? Why are you both so secretive?" Martha begged.

"He's the last of his kind you know Martha" Clara said with a heavy sigh, seriously questioning her sanity as she told Martha all this "The Time-Lords burned. There was a war, the Great Time War. Time Lords versus Daleks. And they lost. There is no one else. He's alone" Martha stopped and turned to stare intently at Clara.

"You don't believe that" she decided. "He has told you that, and you knew he wasn't lying, but there is something in you that doesn't believe that"

Clara raised her eyebrows. No matter how true, she wasn't prepared to admit it. "Think what you will" she said, before striding ahead to the TARDIS the Doctor had already entered.

"Clara" Martha called, making her stop in the doorway "What is your problem with me?" she asked tentitivly.

After a few moments careful consideration Clara answered "Martha, I envy you so much! And maybe one day I will figure out why"

Then she entered the TARDIS leaving Martha even more confused.

**Please Review!**


	18. Clara's general view on Companions

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 18

Martha wandered down a long corridor in the TARDIS, trying to shake the chilling memories of the Daleks in Manhattan. The Doctor was tinkering with the TARDIS in the console room and Clara had gone for a shower after crawling around in the sewers. They said that after a few hours of relaxing they'd take Martha home to get some of her own clothes, so after a quick clean-up she was back in the clothes she'd been wearing when she'd flown off with the Doctor.

The TARDIS was awesome. So far she'd come across a swimming pool, a room full of flowers, an enormous wardrobe and now the biggest library she'd ever entered in her life. Thousands of shelves stretched outwards and into several more stories high, each of them filled with books. Martha walked further through, past sections full of books that told of alien biology and forgotten history.

After a bit more walking around she came across a soft red sofa with a coffee table in front of it. In one corner of Clara was sat with her legs stretched out, dressed in a tank top and very small, tight shorts with wet hair and a red coffee mug in front of her. She was reading some book and must have heard Martha approaching because she looked up.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked, nodding at the other end of the sofa. Clara nodded and placed the book down, drawing her knees to her chest and picking up her mug. Martha sat and got comfortable before an awkward silence fell over them.

"You're thinking about them Daleks aren't you?" Clara said after several minutes of studying the other woman carefully. Martha looked up in surprise. "Yeah. I'm guessing everyone who ever travelled with the Doctor gets messed up by the Daleks. Sarah Jane got this look in her eye when I mentioned them"

"Who's Sarah Jane?" Martha asked.

"She used to travel with the Doctor. I met her once, didn't like her much" Clara wrinkled her nose, thinking of the headache she got whenever she thought of Rose, Sarah Jane ad Martha. Well, she was warming up the latter.

"Oh." Martha nodded "Was she just not nice or like you don't like me?" Clara laughed.

"Like I don't like you." She confirmed "Then again… you're not so bad"

"Thanks… I think" Martha frowned "So who else have you met?"

"Just Rose Tyler. Didn't think much of her either"

"I'm starting to see a recurring theme here" Martha pointed out "Yeah, he mentions her sometimes. But isn't she stuck in some parallel universe? How is she a problem?"

"She's not" Clara shrugged "My brain just seems incapable of registering that. She's ok. Convinced the Doctor to let me stay at the battle of Canary Warf"

"All those Daleks and cyberthings!" Martha said "My cousin worked there… never came home"

"I'm sorry" Clara offered, and she sounded as though she genuinely meant it "That's where I first met Daleks… you did better than I did. I collapsed. I've not really been the same since"

"But the Daleks didn't bother you at all. I was half unsure if they were aware you were there."

"Oh they were aware alright. But Daleks do not harm their own kind" Clara said flatly.

"But that would mean…" she trailed off and Clara shot her a dark look "HOLY CRAP!"

"Calm down" Clara hissed "I'm not a dalek. I swear I'm not. The Doctor ran scans and everything. For some reason they just think there's something Daleky about me"

"OK… is that normal?" Martha asked.

"No, definitely not. We're still trying to figure out what it is" Clara said, draining her mug and setting it down on the table with a louder than necessary clunk. "But I dunno… Sometimes I feel like I'm living half a life. Like this isn't real. But at the same time I have never been moresure it's all actually happening"

Martha had no reply, so she just stayed silent. She wanted to say it. Mention the moment she had back in 1930 New York when she had turned and been sure she saw Clara, dressed differently with different hair but none the less Clara, and a tall white man dressed in Victorian clothing. There had been a shout, she'd seen the blood, and her scream had caught in her throat. She turned to the Doctor only to see Clara stood right beside him, laughing at something he said. When she looked back the dead Clara and the man had both gone, only a faint gold dust fading where they stood. She wanted to say it so badly, but she couldn't do it. She didn't want to come across mad, or make the Doctor question Clara even more. He was so obviously in love with her, as she was him, only neither would admit it. Because he wasn't sure she wasn't evil, or some trap, and she wouldn't break his hearts, get exactly what she wanted. And she was scared he'd turn her away for being strange and not quite human. So she said nothing.

After a few moments Clara suddenly jumped up, nearly knocking over the table. "C'mon, let's go find that Time-Lord!"

She raced out of the library and down the corridor to the console room, expertly dodging and leaping over the items that the TARDIS randomly made appear in attempt to trip her up. Thankfully they disappeared as Martha came along. Clara was so light on the balls of her bare feet it almost looked like she was flying. And as her hair flew out behind her Martha was almost sure she saw her small figure shift strangely with that gold light that often glowed in Clara's eyes. Then it was gone, so perhaps she imagined it.

When Martha came into the console room, Clara had her arms hooked around the Doctor's neck and was stretched up on her tiptoes as he kissed her. It was sweet and loving and she smiled against his lips, laughing at something he'd whispered in her ear. He wrapped his strong arms around her petite waist and lifted her clean off her feet, spinning her around.

Martha smiled at them. It was one of their moments they somehow fitted around the world of aliens and near-death-experiences. And even though it was no less beautiful and honest as any of the other moments she'd witnessed so far, this time fierce determination burned behind Clara's laughing smile. Something that told herself '_I am real. I have to be. I love him too much not to be'_

Clara Oswald hid her feelings well. But she made this one was being made clear. Just to who Martha wasn't quite sure.

**Ok so bit short, a little in between moment.**

**I probably won't write out the actual adventures until we get to Human Nature/Family of Blood because I don't see their stories really being changed with Clara's involvement. PM me or leave a review if there's a particular episode you think I should write. I'm currently writing the chapters for Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords as they are the big ones from season three for this story.**

**Please Review! I love hearing your thoughts!**


	19. Saying I Love You

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 19

_Clara climbed down the escape ladder, her heart pounding in her chest. It was dark and the thick white gear provided by Starship Alaska did little to protect her from the cold in this weird place they'd crash landed. She wondered down the corridor, breathing fast and trying to be reasonable about the whirring sounds in the shadows. She could see blue lights, feel things moving around her._

_Then they were right up close, the horrible creature that had invaded her home when she was a child. Daleks. They back her into a wall and her scream was caught in her throat. They said nothing, and despite having seen the destruction they brought, what they heartlessly did to people, it wasn't what scared her most._

_"__Where am i?" she asked "Where am I? I don't know where I am, I don't know where I am!" _

_An eyestalk moved up and down her body. Finally a rusty voice said "Human, Female. Intelligence… extremely high. Initiate full conversion!"_

_Somehow even though they didn't have arms they successfully dragged her into a strange contraption, ignoring her please and sobbing. Because she was so scared. She was young and genius and loved her life. She loved proving to people she was so much cleverer then them, she loved flirting and confusing people with her wit and charm. She loved being a Junior Entertainment Manager and she loved that she was finally going to see the stars. She loved her siblings and parents back home, she loved her friends and she loved being Oswin Oswald, her mum's soufflé girl. She didn't want it to end. She didn't want to turn cold and to hatred and destruction. She didn't want to spend the rest of eternity with a load of mad Daleks. She couldn't imagine anything worse._

_"__I am not a Dalek I am human!" she shouted as the machine clamped down on her, and all sorts of painful instruments broke through her skin causing complete agony. She saw the wars and thoughts rush through her head, and through the pain could feel the memories, the life, and her humanity slipping away. "I am not a Dalek I am human" her voice broke, slipping into a metallic Dalek tone. _

Clara's eyes flew open; she jumped out of bed and raced to the bathroom, just before she was violently sick. She coughed a few times before sitting down on the side of the bathtub and drawing a glass of water from the sink. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her legs were trembling.

"You ok?" the Doctor's voice came from the doorway. She looked up to see him leaning against the frame, his hair a mess and his brow furrowed in concern.

"Yeah" Clara said, quickly brushing away the tears streaming down her cheeks "I just had a nightmare is all"

"Fifth time this week. I heard you screaming" the Doctor said, sitting down beside her and putting an arm over her shaking shoulders. "What was it about?"

Clara thought of the awful shrieks, of the sharp and alien instruments piercing her skin, slowly tearing her apart. She jumped down and threw up again, the Doctor kindly pulling her hair back. "Daleks" she managed to choke out before she started sobbing.

The Doctor was lost. Clara hardly ever cried, not to his knowledge. Now she was falling apart on her bathroom floor because of a nightmare. It broke both his hearts to see her like this, but he wasn't too sure what to do. So he sat down on the cool white tiles beside her and let her sob into his chest. He gently rocked her back and forth, stroking her hair and whispering what he hoped were soothing words of comfort. Her hair was soft and smelt of cherries and she fitted so perfectly in his arms, even when she was crying her eyes out.

After a while Clara's sobs quietened, so the Doctor gathered her up into him arms and carried back into her room. He laid her gently on her bed and softly kissed her on the head before leaving the room. Only he didn't go anywhere. He sat right outside her bedroom door, ready to rush in there if Clara woke up crying again. He would do anything to keep her safe, he told himself, he owed her that. What for, he wasn't quite sure.

He sat alone in the dark corridor, his back pressed against her bedroom door and whispered "I love you Clara Oswald"

In her sleep, Clara smiled softly.

* * *

Martha burst through the door to 'John Smith's' room shouting "Is he all right?"

"Excuse me, Martha." A clipped voice said. Martha's eyes met Matron's hard ones as she stood tending to the Doctor's head "It's hardly good form to enter a master's study without knocking."

"Sorry. Right. Yeah." Martha said distractedly, backing up to the door and knockin on it before rushing forward "But is he all right? They said you fell down the stairs, Sir."

"No, it was just a tumble, that's all." The Doctor waved it off in his human voice. It was basically the same as his time-lord one, only more proper.

"Have you checked for concussion?" Martha asked anxiously, trying to peer at the injury.

"I have. And I daresay I know a lot more about it than you." Matron said in a cold voice. Martha was reminded once more that here she was nothing but a maid. Not a medical student/time traveller.

The Doctor told Nurse Redfern about his dreams, their adventures and showed her his journal. Martha felt anger bubble up within her as she watched their flirting. The Doctor may not have his memories, but it didn't change the fact he had a girlfriend who he was in love with. The nurse confirmed him human, and Martha was relieved the change had been successful. There had been no way of checking really.

"It's wonderful." Joan complimented his drawing skill as she leafed through the journal. She stopped at one page "And quite an eye for the pretty girls." She said a slight icy tone in his voice. Martha knew what picture she had found. She had seen it once briefly herself. It was a sketch of Clara, showing just how beautiful he thought her to be even when he couldn't remember her.

"Oh no, no," the Doctor protested but her heart wasn't really in it "she's just an invention. This character, Clara. I call her, Clara. She's strangely…"

"Impossible?" Martha supplied under her breath.

"Yes that's it!" the Doctor gave her an odd look before moving on to talk about the TARDIS.

Martha hated being here at Farthingham Boys School. She couldn't wait until they could leave.

* * *

The second time she burst in on the Doctor, he was kissing the Matron. He shouted at her, and she raced out again. She didn't stop running for the whole mile to the TARDIS and her hand was shaking so much she could barely get her key in the lock.

Clara was sitting in the chair in the console room, one leg tucked under her and her chin resting on the other knee. She wore dark blue sweats and a large white knitted jumper, her hair scraped back in a messy knot. She looked so small, so faded without the Doctor.

"You ok Martha?" she frowned, noticing the expression on her face.

"I-" Martha swallowed "Yeah, just had a bit of a shock is all"

How could she tell her? Clara seemed so lost with him. She had refused to leave the TARDIS, begged Martha to go without her, she could help later. Now Martha understood why.

* * *

They all hid in the bushes, watching the TARDIS. Martha felt sick with the thought of Clara being trapped in their, and preyed the TARDIS survailance was working. "Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize. Out you come, Doctor. There's a good boy. Come to the Family." The Family of Blood taunted.

"You recognise it, don't you?" Martha whispered, seeing the look in the Doctor's eyes.

"I've never seen it in my life." The Doctor replied, but Martha couldn't give up. Not with Clara trapped inside it and the future in need of saving.

"Do you remember its name?"

"I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it. The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box." Joan said, and Martha like her more than she ever had before.

"I'm not. I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?" the Doctor said desperately. Joan took his hand.

"Yes. Yes, he is." She said softly.

"Why can't I stay?"

"But we need the Doctor." Martha said in frustration

"What am I, then? Nothing. I'm just a story." The Doctor said. Suddenly there was a crash and they all turned to look at the TARDIS and the family. "What on earth…" the Doctor stared as with a final crash the TARDIS doors opened and a small figure came flying out. She landed on the ground and kicked the door shut with her foot before jumping up. The scarecrows advanced on her but she fought them off with some surprisingly skilled moves Martha hadn't seen her use before. Then she was running off in their direction. Martha reached out and grabbed her small ankle, tugging her into the bushes with surprising strength. The Doctor and Joan stared at her, taking in her sweatpants, t-shirt, bare feet and long messy. Then the Doctor looked at her, and was hit with something.

"I know you" he murmured, and his hand reached towards her pale face. Then he pulled it back and clasped Joan's hand. "No" he said. Then he ran, and they all followed, Martha filling Clara in.

They hid in Lucy Cartwright's home. The cottage was dark and the table was laid for tea.

"Hello? No one home. We should be safe here." Joan said softly.

"Whose house is it, though?"

"Er, the Cartwrights. That little girl at the school, she's Lucy Cartwright, or she's taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon and if the parents tried to stop their little girl, then they were vanished." She touched the teapot "Stone cold. How easily I accept these ideas."

Clara looked at her. She was a pretty enough lady; she could see why the Doctor liked her. As she spoke of accepting the ideas, Clara thought back to her first trip in the TARDIS, how she had agreed after it to accept that some people died.

"I must go to them, before anyone else dies." The Doctor said.

"You can't." Joan cried before Clara could "Martha, there must be something we can do." She said desperately.

"Not without the watch." Martha sighed.

"You lost the watch!" Clara shouted, making everyone jump. Martha explained and she held a hand to her head. This was worse than any nightmare.

"You are you?" Joan asked, looking Clara up and down.

"Clara Oswald. The Doctor's companion" she said shortly.

"Oh another one? You're this Doctor's companions." The Doctor said "Can't you help? What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?"

"You don't know!" Clara said softly, looking up at him "You have no idea!"

"Yet I am supposed to become him!" the Doctor demanded "Is the truth so terrible that you cannot tell me before it's too late?"

There was a knock at the cottage door, and Latimer came in. In his hand was the watch, and Clara took it from him and held it out to the Doctor.

"Take it" she whispered, her eyes melting into his own.

"I won't." he said.

"Please" Clara whispered, her eyes getting even wider. The strange memories swum to the surface, but she fought them back.

"You've had this watch all this time? Why didn't you return it?" Joan asked Latimer.

"Because it was waiting. And because I was so scared of the Doctor." The boy explained "Because I've seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And he's wonderful."

The words sank in, and the Doctor listened, despite his protests.

"I've still got this. The journal." Joan said softy, holding up the book.

"Those are just stories."

"Now we know that's not true. Perhaps there's something in here." She began to leaf through when there was a big bang and the entire cottage shook.

"What the hell?" Martha shrieked and they all gathered by the window to watch the fireballs falling to earth.

"They're destroying the village." This seemed to convince the Doctor.

"The watch." He said steadily, holding out his hand. Clara took a step towards him. The watch whispered, Latimer spoke, and Joan begged John not to. Clara could have cried for joy when he said "Oh, low level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing. Is that how he talks?" he sounded suddenly frightened.

"That's him. All you have to do is open it and he's back." Martha said.

"You knew this all along and yet you watched while Nurse Redfern and I-"

"I didn't know how to stop you!" Martha cried "He gave me a list of things to watch out, for but that wasn't included."

"Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?" the Doctor asked incredulously. Martha glanced at Clara.

"No."

"Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die?" the Doctor spat.

"It was always going to end, though! The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan, and that's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said."

"So your job was to execute me." He said in disgust. Martha didn't know what to say, so Clara stepped forward.

"Yes." She said softly "Yes it was. That's what he's like. You asked us why he needs us, well it's because he's lonely. He needs us, because he's not all good. I would never want him to travel alone, because he is so wonderful, he just needs someone to make him see it." She closed his hand around the watch "People are dying out there. They need him and I need him. Because you've got no idea of what he's like. He is everything. He's just everything to me. I could never live without him. I love him so much, and I could never say it, so even if this is my last chance, and he'll never say it back then I'll tell you. I love you. I love you now, and I will love you always. No matter what face, or what he does, I will always love you. John Smith, or the Doctor, I still love you. And if there is even the smallest part of you that ever loved me, then you will save them. You will _do as you are told._"

He looked down in her wide honest eyes underneath her long lashes. They were a gorgeous chocolate brown. Then he looked again, and he was falling through the streams of gold. He saw just how much she loved him.

He knew what he had to do.

* * *

Clara watched him come up the hill as she leaned against the TARDIS in the pouring rain. He had been saying goodbye to Joan.

"Right then. Molto bene." He said with a grin, but Clara could see past it.

"How was she?" she asked. The Doctor shrugged.

"Time we moved on" he said "I may have loved her at one point, but we can't be like that" he pushed open the door to the TARDIS, only Clara stood in the way.

"About last night, what I said" she took a deep breath.

"I love you too" the Doctor said very abruptly, before she could begin to take any of it back to save her pride. Clara looked absolutely stunned.

"Wh-What?"

"You heard me" the Doctor said "I love you too" then he went into the TARDIS, and Clara couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face.

**Please Review!**


	20. Immortal Man meet Impossible Girl

**Allons-y Impossible Girl **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 20

Clara was getting scared. Terror had slowly and surly built up inside of her over the past few months and now she wasn't sure if she could take it anymore. And it wasn't any aliens or the people they faced on their adventures. It was herself.

Clara had never felt more sure that this was where she belonged the day she met the Doctor. By his side. Only now with the dreams and the memories that weren't hers and the knowledge that came from nowhere, she was more scared then she had ever been in her life. Because all she wanted to be his human companion and travel the stars with him forever, in sweet, honest love.

She could feel it coming. Like a shadow creeping up on her. It was coming, and as terrified as she was of whatever _it_ would turn out to be, she couldn't help shake the feeling that it would finally provide her with and explanation. But she put it from her mind.

"Cardiff?" she heard Martha saying from the console room as she brushed out her almost curls in the bedroom she and the Doctor shared. Neither of them did domestic, but since they had gotten stuck in 1969 without the TARDIS and had been forced to share and tiny apartment for several weeks, both had grown to like the feeling of his arms around her while she slept, three hearts beating against each other. Neither had felt willing to stop, so they spent the nights together in either Clara's room or his room.

"Ah, but the thing about Cardiff, it's built on a rift in time and space, just like California and the San Andreas Fault, but the rift bleeds energy." The Doctor explained "Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

"So it's a pit stop." Martha said with a grin.

"Exactly. Should only take twenty seconds. The rift's been active."

"Wait a minute. They had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago. Was that you?" Martha asked. Clara wondered the same, until an image of Rose and a man who wasn't the Doctor but still was the Doctor flashed through her mind and made her drop the brush. The minute it touched the floor the snogbox made it vanish and Clara swore. That was the third brush this month.

"Bit of trouble with the Slitheen." The Doctor said smoothly "A long time ago. Lifetimes. I was a different man back then."

Clara picked up her phone and slid it into the pocket of her ripped skinny jeans and pulled on her black blazer before leaving the room. Then she suddenly was thrown off her feet as the entire TARDIS went thump.

"We're accelerating into the future." She heard the Doctor shout from the console room as she stumbled towards him "The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. Fifty trillion? What? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible."

"Right here" she said as she slid into the console room and grabbed the console. "Where the hell are we going?"

"The end of the universe" the Doctor said. After a few more not so pleasant minutes they came to a stop, and the Doctor said "Well, we've landed."

"So what's out there?" Martha asked, excitement gleaming in her eyes.

"I don't know." The Doctor said.

"Ooo, that's rare, say it again" Clara teased lightly.

"Not even the Time Lords came this far." The Doctor said defensively "We should leave. We should go. We should really, really go."

But then they grinned and all headed to the door. Outside wasn't too impressive. A large quarry, but all their eyes were drawn to the man lying very dead beside the TARDIS. Martha immediately kicked into medical mode.

"Can't get a pulse." She said. Then she turned to the Doctor "Hold on. You've got that medical kit thing." She ran into the TARDIS without another word.

Clara watched as the Doctor leant over him and murmured "Hello again. Oh, I'm sorry."

Martha raced out the TARDIS a moment later and knelt beside the man "Here we go. Get out of the way." She said breathlessly. Then she finally noticed his clothes "It's a bit odd, though. Not very hundred trillion. That coat's more like World War Two."

"I think he came with us." The Doctor said with a frown.

"What, like from Cardiff?" Clara asked in disbelief.

"Must have been clinging to the outside of the Tardis all the way through the vortex. Well, that's very him." The Doctor mused.

"Oh of course" Clara through her arms up "Only you would know the guy who brought us to the end of the universe" though it explained how she felt she recognised him. Only this man was strange. She didn't hate him, and he was familiar in a different way as to other people.

"Friend of mine. Used to travel with me, back in the old days." The Doctor said.

"But he's. I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dead." Martha said, standing up. Only she was proven wrong because as soon as the words left her mouth he sat up with a gasp and grabbed her, causing her to scream. "Oh, so much for me. It's all right. Just breathe deep. I've got you." She said.

"Captain Jack Harkness." The man said with a flirtatious smile "And who are you?"

"Martha Jones." She said, slightly breathless.

"Nice to meet you, Martha Jones." Jack said, but clearly the Doctor didn't appreciate this.

"Oh, don't start." He complained, and the Captain turned to him.

"I was only saying hello." He said defensivly.

"I don't mind." Martha smiled, helping him to his feet. Jack turned to face the Doctor.

"Doctor." He said in all seriousness.

"Captain."

"Good to see you." He said.

"And you. Same as ever. Although, have you had work done?" the Doctor was clearly trying to avoid something.

"You can talk." Jack snorted, looking at the Doctor's face.

"Oh yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know this was me?" the Doctor asked.

"The police box kind of gives it away. I've been following you for a long time. You abandoned me." He said, anger and betrayal shining in his eyes. Eyes Clara was sure she'd seen before.

"Did I? Busy life. Moving on." The Doctor didn't seem bothered by this.

"Just got to ask. The Battle of Canary Wharf. I saw the list of the dead. It said Rose Tyler." Jack looked achingly sad for a minute there.

"Oh, no! Sorry, she's alive."

"You're kidding." Jack looked immensely relieved.

"Parallel world, safe and sound. And Mickey, and her mother." The Doctor said with a smile, and then Jack hugged him like he couldn't take it anymore, he was so glad to see him and that she was safe.

"Rose" Clara said, flicking her eyebrows upwards and drawing the attention on her. Something completely unnameable flashed through Jack's eyes when he looked at her. Then the smile was back.

"Pleasure to meet you" he took her hand and placed a light kiss on it, but Clara remained unimpressed. The Doctor wasn't pleased either.

"Hey" he said warningly, and wrapped an almost possessive arm around his girlfriend's waist. She only laughed and reached up to kiss him. Jack watched the whole exchange with wide eyes.

* * *

They decided to keep walking across the scrubland while Jack recounted how the Doctor had abandoned him.

"So there I was, stranded in the year two hundred one hundred, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this." He held up the strange bracelet thing on his wrist "I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator. He's not the only one who can time travel."

"Oh, excuse me." The Doctor looked almost offended "That is not time travel. It's like, I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper." Clara giggled.

"All right, so I bounced. I thought 21st century, the best place to find the Doctor, except that I got it a little wrong. Arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless."

"Told you." The Doctor said smugly

"I had to live through the entire twentieth century waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me." Jack complained, sending a sideways glance at Clara, which she missed.

"But that makes you more than one hundred years old." Martha pointed out.

"And looking good, don't you think? So I went to the time rift, based myself there because I knew you'd come back to refuel. Until finally I get a signal on this…" he gestured to his rucksack "detecting you and here we are."

"But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor?" Martha asked curiously.

"I was busy." Was the only answer he supplied.

"Is that what happens, though, seriously? Do you just get bored with us one day and disappear?"

"Not if you're blonde." Jack said. He watched Clara stiffen and the Doctor pulled her even closer.

* * *

Jack didn't get a chance to talk to the Doctor properly until they went to the room no one except he could survive. Clara and Martha stayed upstairs with Professor Yana and Chantho while they went downstairs. Jack went into the radiation chamber while the Doctor stayed behind the door.

"When did you first realise?" he finally asked.

"Earth, 1892. Got in a fight in Ellis Island. A man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up. Thought it was kind of strange. But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War One, World War Two, poison, starvation, a stray javelin. In the end, I got the message. I'm the man who can never die. And all that time you knew." Jack stared at him accusingly through the thick glass.

"That's why I left you behind. It's not easy even just looking at you, Jack, because you're wrong." The Doctor said bluntly.

"Thanks." Jack said sarcastically.

"You are. I can't help it. I'm a Time Lord. It's instinct. It's in my guts. You're a fixed point in time and space. You're a fact. That's never meant to happen. Even the Tardis reacted against you, tried to shake you off. Flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you." The Doctor explained.

"So what you're saying is that you're, er, prejudiced?" Jack said.

"I never thought of it like that." The Doctor admitted.

"Last thing I remember, back when I was mortal, I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination. And then I came back to life." Jack looked right at him for a minute "What happened?"

"Rose." The Doctor said simply. The moment he said it he felt funny. That face had loved Rose, and a part of him still loved her, but right now Clara was his world.

"I thought you'd sent her back home."

"She came back. Opened the heart of the Tardis and absorbed the time vortex itself." The Doctor said simply.

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"No one's ever mean to have that power." He explained "If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god. A vengeful god. But she was human." He thought back to her on satellite 5 "Everything she did was so human. She brought you back to life but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever. That's something, I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life."

"Do you think she could change me back?" Jack asked casually, and there was something hopeful and fearful in his eyes.

"I took the power out of her." The Doctor said "And then I regenerated. She didn't want this face, so we said goodbye. Met her again several years later, and she went to live in the parallel world with her family and her boyfriend. Only she can't get back now"

"I'm sorry." Jack said.

"Yeah." The Doctor said sadly. Then he shrugged. "But she's happy. She didn't have to go it was her decision. And I'm happy. I have Clara. And Martha I suppose"

"What is she?" Jack asked.

"Clara?" the Doctor looked surprised "Human of course. Why'd you ask?"

"She can't be human." Jack frowned "She just can't be"

"Why not?"

"I keep meeting her" Jack said "Everywhere I go I run into her. She looks the same, but she never remembers me. Usually has the same name, but completely different backstory"

"But that's impossible" the Doctor said. "I've done scan after scan"

"I even saw her die a few times. Still bounces back. Got a little obsessed there once" Jack said "Always the same age as well, and has very few connections, she's like a pattern. How old is your Clara?"

"I don't know, around 25 or 26" the Doctor said.

"She doesn't look it. She never does. She doesn't look a day over 20. You're a time lord so you must have noticed. Has she aged even a day since you met her?" the Doctor's expression answered Jack's question.

"the Daleks. They won't hurt her. They say she is one of them" the Doctor muttered.

"Hmm, well, you pick them well Doc" Jack shrugged as he fixed the last one. The Doctor rang the Lieutenant and they began to leave. Then Martha came hurtling down the corridor, shouting about the Professor and his watch.

* * *

Clara stared at Yana as he stared mesmerised at the watch. Then he opened it. She began to back away, realising something was about to happen. Then the Professor looked at her and the memories swam upwards. The door slammed behind her, and she fell unconscious, hearing the Doctor, Martha and Jack begging the Professor to let them in.

**Please Review!**


	21. The Sound of Drums

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 21

Clara felt sick to her stomach. Her head was pounding like crazy, time travel without a capsule did that to you apparently, but the feeling within her was definitely due to their recant encounter with the Master. She'd woken up as the Doctor hauled her into his arms and slammed her hand down on Jack's time vortex manipulator. She really wished she had stayed unconscious for the trip.

He had looked at her. After he opened the watch, he had stared right at her, his gaze so intense she couldn't look anywhere else. His eyes had been full of longing. Longing that didn't make any sense. He had stared at her with a look that said so much, had held so much emotion, not all of it bad. It had terrified her that one look. Made her collapse. She seemed to be doing that a lot since she met the Doctor, since she had never, ever been even the slightest bit ill before she met the Doctor.

He was here. Harold Saxon. Prime Minister. The Master had control of the UK. Martha's family were in deadly danger, and the entire world was tapping out the constant drumming. Clara's head was spinning as they ran from Martha's car in attempt to get away. They ran through the rain, no TARDIS, nowhere to go, no hope at the moment.

She wanted to help, but right now she was pinned to the Doctor's side, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist. It felt wonderfully good to have him so near, even though he was worrying about her non-stop. The thoughts, the ones that weren't hers, thoughts of a mad woman dressed at Mary Poppins and Cybermen and dead people filled her mind and made her pale, dizzy and useless much to her frustration.

"Leo! Oh, thank God. Leo, you got to listen to me. Where are you?" Martha said into her phone a few feet behind them "Leo, just listen to me. Don't go home. I'm telling you. Don't phone Mum or Dad or Tish. You've got to hide. … On my life. You've got to trust me. Go to Boxer's. Stay with him. Don't tell anyone. Just hide." Suddenly Martha went oddly quiet for a few minutes before she shocked the others by screaming down the line. "Let them go, Saxon. Do you hear me! Let them go!"

The Doctor immediately snatched the phone from her and pressed it to his ear. Clara stood alone, pushing the memories away to make herself stronger.

"I'm here." The Doctor said into the phone.

"Doctor."

"Master."

"I like it when you use my name." Saxon chuckled softly.

"You chose it. Psychiatrist's field day." The Doctor replied bluntly

"As you chose yours. The man who makes people better. How sanctimonious is that?" he said, as if they were still just old friends discussing things lightly.

"So, Prime Minister, then."

"I know."

"It's good, isn't it?"

"Who are those creatures? Because there's no such thing as the Toclafane. It's just a made up name, like the Bogeyman." The Doctor demanded.

"Do you remember? All those fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids back home. Where is it, Doctor?" the Master whispered.

"Gone." The Doctor said. It hurt. It hurt to tell the only one left they could never go home, and it was his fault.

"How can Gallifrey be gone?"

"It burned"

"And the Time Lords?"

"Dead. And the Daleks, more or less. What happened to you?" the Doctor asked, too curious to leave it much longer. Martha, Clara and Jack were stood a few feet away, watching him anxiously. Clara's face was still white, but she was recovering.

"The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War. I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared." He told him. And for a moment the Doctor understood.

"I know."

"All of them? But not you, which must mean…" he rounded the subject back to what the Doctor didn't want to think about.

"I was the only one who could end it. And I tried. I did. I tried everything."

"What did it feel like, though? Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did that feel?" the Master demanded, making the Doctor so angry, so guilty, it was all he could do not to crush the phone in his hand.

"Stop it!" he ordered.

"You must have been like God." He continued.

"I've been alone ever since. But not anymore. Don't you see? All we've got is each other." He looked at the three of them. Martha and Jack, so loyal, good friends. His eyes zoned in on the girl he loved, the girl he doubted. A girl who Daleks saw as their own, who wasn't related to her parents, who knew things she never should. He loved Clara, but he still wanted a Time Lord. Someone to share the loss of his home with. His old friend back.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" the Master joked, but the doctor couldn't give up. If he couldn't have his friend, he had to save the earth.

"You could stop this right now. We could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations, if that's what you want, but not on Earth." He pleaded.

"Too late." The fateful words came.

"Why do you say that?"

"The drumming. Can't you hear it? I thought it would stop, but it never does. Never ever stops. Inside my head, the drumming, Doctor. The constant drumming." He said, making the Doctor remember the days from before. The days they'd simply thought him a little bit mad.

"I could help you. Please, let me help." He tried one last time.

"It's everywhere. Listen, listen, listen. Here come the drums. Here come the drums." The people nearby were all tapping the drum beat.

"What have you done? Tell me how you've done this. What are those creatures? Tell me!" the Doctor shouted, but he got no answer

"Ooo look. You're on TV. You're on telly. You and your little band, which, by the way, is ticking every demographic box. So, congratulations on that. Look, there you are." The Doctor looked at the televisions in the window. The pictures of the four of them came under the words TERRORIST SUSPECTS. "You're public enemies numbers one, two, three and four. You can tell handsome Jack that I've sent his little gang off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas, so he won't be getting any help from them. Now, go on, off you go. Why not start by turning to the right?" the Doctor zapped the CCTV camera with his screwdriver. "Oh, you public menace. Better start running." The Master said "And one last thing. We're not just fighting for the earth, we're fighting for her. You may have Clara Oswald right now Doctor but don't worry, I _will _get her back. Go on, run." He hung up the phone, leaving a chill spreading through the Doctor. He wanted Clara! Since when and why were still a mystery, but there was no way he could tell her.

Clara could tell something was up though. Even as they sat in that cold warehouse fixing TARDIS keys while eating takeaway food he watched her with an edgy, possessive glare. He was still getting excited about Archangel and all that, but Clara could tell there was something else he wasn't telling them.

She was thinking about the Master too much. She was so sure there was something about him, something she couldn't quite place that made him very important. When the Doctor spoke of Gallifrey, she could picture it perfectly, almost as if she had been there herself. Then he talked about the drumming, how the Master went mad at the age of eight when he looked into the Untempered Schism.

_"__It won't stop Clara, the drumming won't stop. Can't you hear it?"_

_"__There's no drums Koschei! You're going mad!"_

The same words played in her mind as they got aboard the Valiant. Koschei. It was the Master's name, or at least some kind of Gallifreyan name. She could feel it. But how she knew that terrified her. What if she really was a trap? What if all the knowledge, the dreams, the Daleks was all down to him?

Clara stared intently at him as they crept into the flight deck, ignoring President Winters as he addressed the human race about the Toclafane. She barely heard the Doctor's instructions to get her TARDIS key around his neck. By this point she was too spaced to probably have done it.

Not that she got a chance, because the next thing she knew the President was lying dead on the floor. It gave her enough of a shock to pull herself together however, and she was on red alert as the guards stopped the Doctor from running at the Master.

"We meet at last, Doctor. Oh, ho. I love saying that." He grinned crazily, and Clara decided anyone who thought this man was mad had the right idea.

"Stop it! Stop it now!" the Doctor demanded. Clara felt the urge to do something, anything to help him growing inside her. She locked her muscles into place and felt behind her for something to grab a hold of.

"As if a perception filter's going to work on me. And look, it's the girlie and the freak. Although, I'm not sure which one's which." Clara had to assume he was talking about Martha and Jack, since his eyes skated right over her. Maybe her perception filter worked while theirs didn't? She didn't have time to consider it because when Jack ran forward the Master zapped him with his own screwdriver.

"Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!" Clara shivered at the sick delight it his tone.

"Master, just calm down. Just look at what you're doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself-" the Doctor desperately tried to reason with him.

"Oh, do excuse me. Little bit of personal business. Back in a minute. Let him go." Clara felt the tension vanish, but remained on edge as the Doctor stepped forward.

"It's that sound. The sound in your head. What if I could help?" he coaxed, his eyes wide and honest.

"Oh, how to shut him up?" the Master mused, and as his eyes met with Clara's, she knew he hadn't missed her "I know. Memory Lane. Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device? What, did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence? I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver? But, ooo, if I only had the Doctor's biological code. Oh, wait a minute, I do." He opened a large metal briefcase "I've got his hand. And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another hundred years?"

Clara felt panic rise in her chest as he aimed the screwdriver at the Doctor. Then in the same moment the Doctor went into rapid convulsions and two solid arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her off her feet as she screamed "NO!" and kicked her legs. Only it wasn't the strange feeling she felt whenever the Doctor was inches from death. More like genuine fear of the pain he was enduring. This wasn't any weird thing about her, this was her honest desperation to help the man she loved. The thought thrilled her slightly. The arms didn't release her once the Doctor lay old in Martha's arms, and they'd pinned her down so she couldn't fight them off. She couldn't help but notice that the Lucy Saxon looked less than happy at all these events.

She could only watch helpless as the Toclafane came through the rip in the sky. "Shall we decimate them?" the Master asked "That sounds good. A nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population!"

Clara began to shout, unable to watch anymore as the cries for help came through the radio. "You can't! What are you doing? Please!"

Suddenly Martha disappeared and Clara listened as London called through for help. Her home, her friends, her family. The Master and Lucy led the now ancient Doctor to the window as a guard dragged Jack off and the man holding her put her in a chair and handcuffed her to it.

She was left alone, tortured by the desperate appeal for help from her people. Finally the Master returned alone and switch the radio off. He approached her and looked down, his eyes burning with that strange longing.

Then he leaned forward and pressed a very quick kiss to her lips. He stroked her hair once and whispered "I'm so glad I finally found you"

**Please Review!**


	22. A Life on Gallifrey

**Allons-y Impossible Girl **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

**Sorry about the wait I've been away. Do you think I should do the Day of the Doctor and if so where in the timeline do you think it falls. It will have to be either after Season 3, before or after Voyage of the Damned or after Journeys End. PM me or say in a review. **

Chapter 22

The Master stared at the girl handcuffed to the office chair, her wide golden brown eyes following him as he paced. She didn't remember him, that much was obvious from the response he got to the kiss. Right now he didn't care though because he had found her. After hundred of years, several regenerations and a handful of encounters with the Doctor, here she was. And she wasn't just a fleeting echo running to her death with eyes only for the Doctor. She was real...ish.

He wasn't stupid. This echo of Clara Oswald would be different to the girl he had known so long ago. However she was not the original, and she had been travelling with the Doctor long enough to become more... solid was probably the best way to describe it. In short, she was something he had never thought he would find, but here she was, demanding explanations for fifty million different things.

Her appearance was very much the same. Her hair was slightly longer and her eyes were a mix between the natural chocolate brown and time stream gold. Otherwise she hadn't changed, for which he was grateful. She studied him carefully, and the look in her eyes was not fearful, but a bit curious and uncertain. She did not remember, but something deep inside her recognised him.

"Is it your fault?" She asked him "The dreams and the thoughts. Did you put them there?" She seemed desperate for an answer.

"No" he said and she slumped back in her chair "But I do know where they are coming from" he smirked as she sat up slightly, eyes flashing in interest.

"How?" She demanded "How do you know? The Doctor doesn't!"The Master rolled his eyes. Of course, she would adore the Doctor. She always had. But he wouldn't make the same mistakes he did last time. The mistakes that had cost him her life. "Of course he can't see it" he said "Because he is the centre of it."

"The centre of what?" She asked "You really gotta start explaining yourself"

He studied her, then relented. "Very well. At some point in the Doctors time line you are his companion"

"Really?" She said sarcastically "I had no idea. Thank you for that obscure insight."

"Not now" he said "The real version of yourself is his companion"

"The real version" she scoffed "What am I if I am not real?"

"Hmm, you're realish" he shrugged "But the real Clara Oswald jumped into the Doctors time stream and scattered herself into hundreds of thousands of versions of herself. Echoes all over time and space with the soul purpose of saving the Doctor." He watched her carefully, searching her eyes for disbelief. It seemed to make sense to her though, despite the uncertainty. "You are one of those echoes"

Clara was silent, but the Master knew she understood from the flashing gold of her eyes. Then she asked "Why don't I remember?"

"Because in remembering that you remember every life you've every lived. Dying hundreds of thousands of times. It would fry your brain in a matter of minutes." The Master said "So in order for you to remember me, you'll have to change"

"Change?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "How do you mean change?"

"I lost you once" he said, the terrible night flashing before his eyes "And I will not lose you again. I've been waiting centuries for an echo to be with the Doctor long enough to become a Time Lady again. Now I have you, nothing will stop me!" He placed his hands on hers and leaned forwards so their noses were almost touching. Her eyes were wide with fear. "You'll be better" he promised her softly "So much better. And when you remember me, you will thank me"

"Why?" She whispered "I should hate you shouldn't I?" He paused. He thought of his childhood on Gallifrey, the feeling thaT he would always be second best. So consumed by jealousy that he had been unable to see what was right in front of him.

"No" he murmured "You once loved me. And I will not ignore that this time" then he pressed his fingers to her temples and blew regeneration energy into her face. Then he left her as she slipped away into unconsciousness.

* * *

_Three children run through the fields of red grass, the twin suns burning down on them. Their laughter carries up into the mountains as they chased each other, shrieking with delight. They had played like this together for as long as they could remember, but soon everything would be different. Soon they would be eight years old, so they savoured their time together now. Before it had to end._

_"What do you think you'll do?" Clara asks them as they lay on their backs watching the stars blink over the mountains. "Will you go to the Academy?"_

_"Of course we will" Both boys chorus "We'll be Time Lords!"_

_The other jumps to his feet. "I'll take a TARDIS!" He shouts, arms outstretched and fingers spread, as if he could touch the galaxies and planets below "I'm going to see it all!"_

_"Well in that case I'm coming with you!" Clara laughs, jumping up and taking his hand. Koschei is left, sitting alone as Clara and his best friend keep on running, her long hair flying out behind her. They always leave him. A lot of the time it's as if there is no one else in the universe but him to her. She is devoted to him. She would have followed him to the other side of Gallifrey and back. Koschei cannot see that she loves him too. He only sees them together. And a future they have figured out. Oswin calls him the Doctor, no one knows why._

**/**

_They walk together, Koschei and Clara. 'The Doctor' is his best friend, he likes it quite a lot when it's just him and her. They have left Arcadia, their home, and gone to the Academy. Classes have started and there is no time for playing, but still they walk. He tries to explain, but she doesn't understand. No one does._

_"There are drums see" he says, as patiently as he can, tapping the constant rhythm on her wrist "Always there. Ever since I looked into the Untempered Schism"_

_She only laughs. "There are no drums Kos. None at all. Time turned you mad" she says. He doesn't argue __"Did you go mad? Did you run?" He doesn't think she was inspired._

_"I don't know" she says thoughtfully "I was worrying about Theta" They dropped the nickname Doctor years ago. No one thinks of it now._

_"You're always thinking of him" he grumbles "Do you ever think of me?" She doesn't answer, just keeps on walking._

_**/**_

_They continue to grow. She gets more and more beautiful every day. He is falling in _

_love with her, he is sure of it. But she doesn't see him. She has only eyes for his best friend. _

_His jealousy grows with his love. Because she always talks of him. Muttering away under her breath and she barely has time for a brief smile in his direction. He doesn't understand why. Theta Sigma is her life. Koschei is only sidelined._

_They go. Four of them run to the TARDIS's to take one and go to the Medusa Cascade. She runs behind, screaming for him. At last for him. Not the boy he has always been second to, the one she has adored. At last the girl he loves screams for him. He stops and turns._

_"Don't go!" She begs him "For Rassilions sake don't be so stupid!"_

_"I don't see you stopping Theta!" He snaps and something changes in her eyes. Then she hardens and says "He has to. You don't"_

_He doesn't listen, instead follows the others._

_When they return they are heroes. They have made their promises. Chosen their names. He is now the Master, with the Corsair, the Rani and the Doctor. When his best friend announces his name he briefly remembers something from decades ago. A nickname given before the Academy, now forgotten._

_Clara fights her way through the crowds, but she is looking at the Doctor. They walk away together, and it is like they are children once more, him always left alone. She knows the Doctor's promise, and although their names shall be lost to history, Clara will know the Doctor's. Because he trusts her completely._

_**/**_

_Time passes. The Master and the Doctor age, but Clara has not changed for so long. The Doctor plans to steal a TARDIS, he asks her to go with him. The Master watches, hatred and jealousy boiling, because he loves her, and she will go away with his childhood best friend. But she says no. He watches the tears stream down her face as she makes the Doctor forget her. He walks away, all knowledge of his Impossible Girl as they had called her, forgotten. Making people forget was a talent of Clara's, just as hypnotism was a talent of his own._

_He comforts her, and asks why she did it. So she shows him what she saw in the Untempered Schism years ago, the Great Intelligence and the echoes, how she was not real and the Doctor not destined to know her for centuries yet to come. How he had others to travel with and care for. How it could not be her. So he understands now, but his jealousy does not leave him. Because Clara Oswald still wants the Doctor, not him._

_She helps the Doctor steal his TARDIS, and he doesn't recognise her. The Master and Clara see less and less of each other. He won't tell her what he is doing. He wants to protect her. And he will not trust her the way the Doctor did. _

_He doesn't notice. He cannot see that Clara, the Time Lady he loves has fallen in love with him as well._

_**/**_

_The Time War comes and he is scared. He does not want to be a soldier, so he finds Clara and asks her to come with him._

_"We'll make ourselves human" he says "Come away with me, they'll never find us"_

_She turns on him. She hasn't aged a day since the Academy. "I can't" she says "I have to save the Doctor!" _

_He feels the rage build up inside. After so long, after him forgetting her, leaving her, she still wants her Doctor! "You will always love him! I loved you so much more then he ever cared for you! But you never see me!"_

_Then she is equally angry. "I love you!" She shouts "I loved you for years, but you hated him so much you never could see! Go then. See if I care. Desert your people. Coward!" _

_She runs away and he doesn't follow. For God he wishes he had because he watches two days later as she is killed by a Dalek after pulling the Doctor to the safety of his TARDIS. He is consumed by grief, and makes himself human to escape both the Time Lords and the pain. Before he does it he vows he will find her again, and the Doctor will pay for taking her away from him._

_**/**_

_When he opens the watch she is right there, it seems too good to be true. Then she collapses, and after a quick check he realises she's human, she is only another echo. But he can change her. He can bring her back. He doesn't take her with him straight away, he flies off. He finds a human, Lucy, and he supposes he loves her. But she isn't Clara. Clara Oswald is the prize. He wants her more and more, but he is so mad he can't see if he really loves her anymore, or if he is only obsessed. But he finds her anyway, and with the Doctor no longer young and handsome she can be convinced. Because now Clara Oswald has the knowledge of a Time Lady and hundreds of thousands of lives worth of battle strategy and fighting skills. By waking her up, by changing her, not only has he brought her back, he has made himself the greatest warrior in the universe. _

_It was just a shame she couldn't kill the Doctor._

**Please Review!**


	23. The Year that Never Was

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 23

Clara watched the golden regeneration energy dance on the ends of her fingertips, glittering in the winter sunlight that streamed in through the large window. The clouds were spread out in front of her and between them she could see the shadow of the earth below.

"Clara, are you listening to me?" The Master's impatient voice broke through her daydreams and she allowed the energy to fade, turning back to the conversation.

"Sorry" she said, although she wasn't. "What were you saying Kos?"

"Never mind" he sighed, crossing the room to stand beside her and look out at the sky. "What would you like to do today?"

Ever since she had been 'fixed' so to speak, Clara had spent her days in the Valiant fairly bored. She was adjusting to her new mind, it was ridiculously crowded in there. She had lived a life, sometimes two and on one occasion three for nearly everyday the Doctor had lived, and for the days he had not lived yet. She remembered it all. Every boring childhood, every mum, dad, brother and sister, all the people she hurt every time she died. She remembered every adventure, every Doctor and every death. Saving him, thoughtlessly, without hesitation. Because every echo carried the sole belief that their life was not at all important compared to his.

"I want to see the Doctor!" she said, turning her gaze on him, eyes blazing gold. His expression hardened.

"Doctor, Doctor, Doctor!" The Master spat, turning away from her "That's all that ever comes out of your mouth. I asked you all those years ago, and I'll ask you again, do you ever think of me?"

He spun round to meet her challenging gaze. She held it for a moment, then gave the smallest of smirks and looked back out the window. The Master gritted his teeth.

"I love you. You cannot seem to see that. After everything I have done for you-"

"Oh please" Clara rolled her eyes and gave him a bitter look. "Spare me!"

"You are better now!" The Master shouted "Because of me! You have so much more! You are a Time Lady again!"

"I am also a Dalek!" Clara shrieked, the gun ejecting from her palm and the beam narrowly missing his head. She turned, and forced it back in and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." She said softly. He said nothing.

"You cannot see the Doctor" he said forcefully after some time "But I suppose you can speak to the Captain" he sneered Jack's title. Clara gave a false smile.

"Thank you Koschei" she murmured "You're right. You did make me better"

Perhaps it was true. She was so clever, so strong, and immortal. But she was also a Dalek, and nothing made up for that.

* * *

Jack had it pretty rough. He was chained up, in a lot of pain and in real need of a bath. The guard tugged Clara through the door and handcuffed her to a pipe before marching out.

Jack gave her a smile that sort of came out as a grimace. "You're living it up then" he said in greeting, "You look smoking"

"That's the idea" Clara said dryly, settling down on the filthy floor "These shoes aren't particularly practical" she kicked up a leg that that was in a knee high black stiletto boot. Just standing in them looked like a suicide mission.

"Why'd you always wear heals then?" Jack asked, straining against the chains.

"Because being short sucks, especially when your boyfriend is a foot taller then you" Clara shrugged "You doing ok?"

"Could be better" Jack winced "What makes you so special?"

Clara paused, unsure how to explain. Then she said "We go back. Me and the Master. A really long way back."

"Right" Jack said "That's real comforting. How far back?"

"Gallifrey" Clara sighed.

"Like the Doctor's home?" Jack asked "Planet of the Time Lords?" Clara nodded in confirmation "You're a Time Lord?"

"Time Lady actually" Clara corrected "And not really anymore. But I was once... A very long time ago."

"Ok, Impossible Girl" Jack winced again "I have been here for God knows how long, and I'm in quite a lot of pain. Please start making sense"

"Alright, fine" Clara let all the air rush out of her lungs and leant her head back. "You've met me before"

"Yeah. And you never remember me" Jack grunted in pain.

"Course I don't. You'd need the mind of a Time Lord to remember." Clara said. She ran a hand through her already tousled brown hair and stared at the long strands that came loose. "I jumped into the Doctors time stream, and scattered hundreds of thousands of versions of myself to every day he lived. And you've been around so long you ran into quite a few of them"

Jack tried to process this. "You didn't know me before. When you and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS at the end of the universe you didn't know me, and now you do" he said.

"The Master. He changed me." She said emotionlessly "I was human when we got here. Now... Not so much"

"Time Lady?"

"A little bit" Clara shrugged "I only have one heart, but he restored my Time Lord mind. Gave me enough regeneration energy to kick start the cycle from that lifetime." She carefully sliced the palm of her hand open on a sharp edge of rusting metal. She held it out for Jack to see the blood rising, and then the golden energy surrounding it. In less then a minute there wasn't a trace of a cut.

"Can you change your face as well?" Jack asked.

"No, there isn't enough. I couldn't even regenerate when I lived on Gallifrey. I just didn't age" Clara shrugged.

"Why's that?"

"The original Clara Oswald will jump into the Doctor's time stream when she is 26 years old" she said "This body, the echo, doesn't retain the ability to age any further, it can't recognise how the body would develop. When they hit 20 they stop ageing so that they won't die before they meet the Doctor."

"And you?" Something about Jack's voice was almost hopeful.

"Regeneration energy heals me the moment I get hurt or sick now. I don't age any more." She said.

"What so it's going to be you and me undying for the rest of time?"

"No" Clara looked away "The body won't last that long"

"Plus we might never get out of here" Jack clenched his jaw.

"Oh we will" Clara said, although Jack thought she could have sounded happier about it "Its all down to Martha Jones now. But we'll make it out alive"

"Well I hope you're right" Jack said grimly "Because I don't know how much of this I can take"

* * *

One year. Clara counted around a year before everything changed. Before the day the man burst into the room and said that she was to come immediately to the Flight Deck. And her heart soured. Because the flight deck, the one place she had never been allowed to set foot in, and she was sure the Doctor was there.

She followed the guard up into the already crowded room, and stood beside Jack on the side of the room. Martha was brought in, head bowed and stealing glances at her family to one side. Clara stared at the Doctor.

He looked like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, peering through the bars of the cage he sat in. The Master stood before Martha and gave a cruel smile. "Your teleport device, in case you thought I'd forgotten." He said, and Martha threw Jack's vortex manipulator to him. "And now, kneel. Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?" His eyes landed on Clara as Martha kneeled, daring her to try and stop him.

"The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice!"

"Three minutes to align the black hole converters. Counting down. I never could resist a ticking clock. My children, are you ready?" The Master asked.

"We will fly and blaze and slice. We will fly and blaze and slice." The spheres said in excitement.

"At zero, to mark this day, the child Martha Jones, will die. My first blood. Any last words?" He looked down at her "No? Such a disappointment, this one. Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the time vortex. Companions who survived the impossible!" his lip curled in resentment "This one's useless. Bow your head. And so it falls to me, as Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward"

Martha laughed quietly, and Clara had to fight her smile.

"What. What's so funny?" the Master asked in annoyance.

"A gun." Martha said simply.

"What about it?"

"A gun in four parts?" Clara thought of it, searching her mind for an echo that knew of the gun, and finally found it.

Clara liked guns. They were particularly useful when trying to kill in a lifetime that hadn't blessed her with unarmed combat skills. She felt safe with a gun, but she had always watched the Doctor be so against them. She had said he didn't have it life her. He always got out alive, often down to her, when she rarely escaped.

But they were different, her and the Doctor, Clara realised as Martha explained what she'd really been doing all over the earth. Because the Doctor had destroyed his own people, committed genocide on the Time Lords. He had the blood of thousands of people of his hands, of all different races. But he was good. He didn't try to kill. He tried to find a way to save everyone, stop the violence and the awful stuff without killing anyone. He was not always successful, but he tried to find another option.

Clara wasn't like that. The echoes had long ago forgotten that. Because the Great Intelligence couldn't been reasoned with, and Clara hadn't learned to save the people when the Doctor couldn't. The moment she saw Dr Simion, destroying him became the only thing. Saving the Doctor was everything, nothing else was even remotely important. And she had learned to kill in cold blood. The people who stood in her way. Even those who could have been convinced.

"Right across the world, in word, just one thought at one moment but with fifteen satellites." Martha said, looking up at the Master, who finally was catching on.

"The Archangel Network." Jack realised.

"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word is Doctor." Martha said, and then the countdown hit zero. The Doctor's cage began to glow.

"Stop it. No, no, no, no, you don't." The Master shouted. All around her everyone was chanting 'Doctor' with the crowd on the monitor. Clara knew they'd won when the Master's wife Lucy said it as well. She was only human, and the Master was a bit too evil for a human stomach.

Slowly the Doctor turned old, then younger and younger, and Martha raced to her family. The Master continued to shout, and the Doctor forgave him. Clara realised she was glad. Because no matter what she did, no matter how much she loved the Doctor, Clara the Time Lord had loved the Master. It wasn't the kind of love you forgot.

The Doctor and the Master disappeared, Jack ran off to the TARDIS, and Clara grabbed one of the guard's guns, just in case. It was all happening very fast around her, but she was glad. It was going back to normal.

The spheres began to disappear as the Doctor and the Master returned, and the ship was shaking. Papers flew everywhere and Clara's hair was becoming a mess, but none of it mattered because due to the shaking and her death trap shoes, she found herself thrown into the arms of the man she loved, and had been without for a year. He held her close as he yelled "Everyone get down! Time is reversing!"

Despite the chaos, Clara twisted and kissed him long and hard. She didn't care that she was now not really human and a little bit Dalek and she probably couldn't stay with him, because here he was. They broke apart as calm returned.

"The paradox is broken. We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning." The Doctor smiled, checking everything. "Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was."

"What about the spheres?" Martha asked.

"Trapped at the end of the universe." The Doctor said. Clara turned to him while rearranging her hair.

"But I- I can remember. I haven't-"

"You haven't changed back because you're Impossible. You somehow exist across all of time and nowhere in it. No wonder the TARDIS doesn't like you" Clara stared at him, realising the Master must have told him everything. "We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know. Oh, hello. You must be Mister Jones. We haven't actually met."

Jack stopped the Master from escaping and asked the big question. What to do with him.

Clara felt panic rise in her as the Jones family were all in favour of killing him, but thankfully the Doctor stopped them. She wasn't sure about his idea to keep him around either, but it didn't matter in the end. Lucy shot her husband.

A cry escaped her lips as the Doctor caught him and each knelt on either side of him.

"Always the women." The Master muttered with a small smile.

"I didn't see her." The Doctor said.

"Dying in your arms. Happy now?" he asked. Clara shook her head.

"Regenerate" she whispered "Come on"

He looked up at her with his eyes full of longing and regret. "No" he said softly. He ignored the Doctor's please. "Did you ever love me?" he asked her. The room was silent, awaiting her reply.

"Yes" Clara said, tears pricking her eyes "I did. A long time ago. Before all this"

He gave a soft laugh. "I guess I got it wrong again. But the drumming. Will it stop Doctor?"

Then he died, and Clara kissed his lips softly. Her goodbye. Because even if he returned, he would never know her again.

* * *

After a few goodbyes, the Doctor and Clara found themselves outside Martha's house, waiting for her with the spare hand attached to the base of the console. She came back in, and they said goodbye. She left her mobile phone, and Clara was pleased that her own stupid interference hadn't changed anything major.

"What about me?" She asked as the door closed behind the woman who walked the earth. "I'm not human."

"I don't love you any less." The Doctor said as he sent them into space "I don't know what you are or how you exist, and only you can tell me how badly the timelines are confused. But I still love you. And I want you"

Clara smiled. "I know the future. I've locked most of it away, but things will slip through."

"So long as you're not giving anything away" the Doctor grinned. Clara smiled and jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He kissed her and looked down at her clothes. He was about to comment on the combat outfit, when the bow of a ship smashed through the side of the TARDIS and into the console room.

Both of them stared at it, and Clara picked up a life belt with the name Titanic written on it.

"What?" they both said.

**Please Review!**


	24. The One He Never Saves

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who **

Chapter 24

Clara stepped out of the TARDIS wearing a short gold dress, black heals and dark tight with her hair loose and took the Doctor's hand as they headed to the ship reception. He was dressed in his 'James Bond' tux and he didn't have the heart to tell that again her skirt was too short. Clara wasn't always great at dressing quite right to the time periods.

"Hang on, so we're on the Titanic" she said "But we're in deep space"

"I thought you knew the future" the Doctor said. Clara rolled her eyes.

"I definitely couldn't stay with you then could I. I told you, I forgot!" she said "The biggest concern now is running into myself"

"Is that very likely to happen?" he asked, still trying to wrap his head around the whole idea. Clara laughed.

"Don't worry. You're not very likely to notice. I'll know where I shouldn't go" she promised, and the Doctor felt guilty as he was reminded of how he hadn't noticed her for 900 years of his life.

"Merry Christmas, sir, madam." A steward nodded to them as they passed.

"Merry Christmas." They said in unison before they approached one of the large angels.

"Evening. Passenger fifty seven. Terrible memory. Remind me. You would be?" the Doctor asked it cheerfully.

"Information. Heavenly Host supplying tourist information." The Host said helpfully.

"Good, so, tell me, because I'm an idiot, where are we from?" the Doctor asked again.

"Information. The Titanic is en route from the planet Sto in the Cassavalian Belt. The purpose of the cruise is to experience primitive cultures." The Host replied once more.

"Titanic. Who thought of the name?"

" Information. It was chosen as the most famous vessel of the planet Earth."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, maybe not the best name. Do they happen to know why it is famous?" the Host turned it's empty gaze on her.

"Information. All designations are chosen by Mister Max Capricorn, president of Max, Max, Max-" the angel twitched and his voice began to go funny. A steward hurried over and carted it away.

Clara wandered off and the Doctor watched a man crash into a waitress, spilling the drinks she was carrying and then shouting at her. The Doctor bent over to help her. They struck up a conversation and she introduced herself as Astrid, telling him about her dream to see the universe. She was very sweet and offered to get him and Clara a drink. As she walked away said girlfriend reappeared and lead him over to a rather large man and woman dressed in purple costumes while some others were laughing.

"Just ignore them." The man told the woman as they took a seat.

"Something's tickled them." The Doctor commented.

"They told us it was fancy dress. Very funny, I'm sure." The woman said gloomily.

"They're just picking on us because we haven't paid. We won our tickets in a competition." The man explained. Clara nodded. She had known a few (and been a few) girls like that.

"I had to name the five husbands of Joofie Crystalle in By the Light of the Asteroid. Did you ever watch By the Light of the Asteroid?" the woman asked eagerly. Clara smiled.

"Those twins right?" she said, hoping she got it right.

"That's it. Oh, it's marvellous." The woman shrieked with laughter.

"But we're not good enough for that lot. They think we should be in steerage."

"Well, can't have that, can we?" the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and discreetly aimed it at the champagne bottle on their table. The cork popped out and the drink sprayed everywhere, all over them.

"Did you do that?" the woman asked as the people shouted and they laughed.

"Maybe."

"We like you."

"We do. I'm Morvin Van Hoff. This is my good woman, Foon." The man introduced them.

"Foon. Hello, I'm the Doctor." He said "And this is my girl Clara"

"Oh, I'm going to need a Doctor, time I've finished with that buffet. Have a buffalo wing. They must be enormous, these buffalo. So many wings."

Clara frowned a mouthed _buffalo wings? _Questioningly at the Doctor.

"Attention please. Shore leave tickets Red Six Seven now activated. Red Six Seven." The tannoy announced.

"Red Six Seven. That's us. Are you Red Six Seven?" Foon asked them. The Doctor grinned at Clara.

"Might as well be." He said, pulling out his sidekick paper. As they stood someone bumped the table and spilled a drink down Clara's front.

She swore under her breath. "I better go clean up. You go" she told the Doctor "Take that waitress with you. She said she wanted to see a different planet" before she waltzed off to find a bathroom.

"Come on, then. We're going to Earth." Morvin said, and lead them to the reception, the Doctor looking out for Astrid.

* * *

Clara's head was pounding and the hand she raised to it was bright red. The aching in her bones faded as she sat up, and some regeneration energy lingered around her blood stained leg. Using her super Time-Lady strength she shoved the large piece of metal framework pinning her down and stood up.

She was in a dark room, the only light came from outside which was not a lot when you were in Earth's orbit. She picked her way along to corridor, twisting her ankle in her shoes and tripping on bits of pipe. Finally she found some sort of communication system and hacked into fairly easily.

"Hello! Anyone? Doctor?" she called. There was some crackling.

"Hello. Is someone there?" a young man's voice came through the comm "This is the bridge, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm ok" Clara looked around her at the destruction, then out the window where dead passengers floated away into space. "What happened?"

"The Captain, he took down the shields. And as soon as the engines fail the ship drops to the planet below" the man said.

"That's not good!" Clara said "Has anyone else called through?"

"A man. He didn't give his name but he told me to keep the engines running till he got here and fixed it."

"That would be the Doctor" Clara muttered. "OK, can you send me a map to get to the bridge, I'll come find you!"

* * *

Midshipman Frame was busy trying to stop the bleeding from his side when the girl stumbled through the door some time later. She looked a complete mess but despite being covered in blood didn't appear to be hurt. She didn't say anything, only collapsed on the floor beside him breathing heavily. With two elegant flicks of her legs the heals went flying across the room and she smiled at him.

"Your angels have fallen" she said breathlessly, too tired to move.

"What?" he asked, wondering if she hit her head.

"The Hosts." She elaborated "They tried to kill me. I'm Clara by the way. You sent me a map earlier"

"Oh yeah" he nodded "I'm Alonso"

"Alonso" Clara giggled "Allons-y Impossible Girl! The Doctor's gonna love you"

"Are you alright?" he frowned at her.

"Yeah, I'm great" she glanced at his wound "You're not though. Someone shoot you?"

"Yeah" Alonso nodded "The Captain. I tried to stop him from taking down the shields"

"Ah ok" Clara nodded "Let me help" She gently pressed a hand to the wound and he watched in fascination as the golden energy appeared and a few moments later the wound was healed.

"Thanks" he said "How'd you do that?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm awesome" she grinned "And soon the Doctor will be here and he's gonna save everyone!"

"Boyfriend?" he asked. She shrugged.

"It's complicated. But yeah I guess"

"How do you know he can save us?" he asked her, staring at her strange burning gold eyes.

"Because he always does" she said without a shred of doubt "He always will. He is the greatest man in the universe. He always saves everyone"

"How can you say that?" Alonso asked again "No one could save everyone. In order to save some you have to kill others. How can you, if you're in love with him, have the right to truthfully call him the greatest?"

"I have the right" she assured him. "Because he has never saved my life, no matter how many times I died in front of him, he has never saved me. And I still call him great!"

**Please Review! **


	25. Clara's and Fat Things

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**A/N: Sorry it's been a while, I've been crazy busy. Onto Season 4, keep reviewing!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 25

Clara came into the console room one morning to find the Doctor sat in the flight chair staring at nothing in particular. She frowned, said his name twice, but he was so deep in thought she eventually just gave up and curled up beside him.

"They all leave" he murmured "She died to save me"

"She's free now. Out among the stars" Clara reminded her "And you stopped the Titanic from destroying London."

"But she was young. She didn't deserve to die. None of you do!" his eyes were dark. Clara's eyes burned a brighter gold in contrast.

"I chose to. I chose to give my life. And I don't regret it not now not ever." She whispered. This Doctor scared her slightly. Dark and unpredictable. He emerged from time to time, in the moments when his humour and brilliance, and her love and charm were unable to chase away the demons lurking in the blackest corners of his soul. She pressed a tender kiss to his lips, and inwardly sighed as he returned it with his usual warmth. "What are we doing today?"

"We're investigating a company called Adipose Industries!" he announced, his lively enthusiasm returned. "Dress smart!"

So later that day Clara found herself walking back through her own time dressed in a black trouser suit and a grey lace shirt, her hair in a high ponytail and heals on her feet. The Doctor had located a second piece of psychic paper so he was John Smith, Health and Safety and she was Carla Oswin, Adipose Industries.

They broke into the projection room to watch a lecture given by Miss Foster about the Adipose pill. The guy running the projection mostly just ignored them, which Clara took to be a good sign. Once it was over they stepped into an empty corridor and she leant against the wall.

"It looks fairly legit" she shrugged "What are we investigating exactly?"

The Doctor frowned. "I picked up a strange signal from this place. And if you ask me the entire thing's a little dodgy"

Clara rolled her eyes. "Everything is dodgy to you. So where next?"

"Call centre!" the Doctor announced, throwing an arm around her shoulders and leading her left "We'll get a list of their customers. Talk to the people!"

"I can't go in there!" Clara said, stopping in her tracks. "I'm already in their!"

"What?" the Doctor said bemused.

"The echo. She's in there! All those people will know her. There is a point where people start to ask questions!" she said. "You go. No flirting!" Then she wondered in the other direction to have a look around.

* * *

"Did you get it?" Clara asked when he met her outside an hour later. He showed her the lists and grinned.

"Easy peasy!" he announced "Now, let's go talk to…" he scanned the list "Roger Davies!"

"So the plan is to just knock on his door and interrogate him?" Clara asked as they hailed a taxi "You better give me the gizmo if you're going to do the talking"

She hung around outside in the cool night while the Doctor was inside the house, examining the three pronged invention she'd confiscated earlier. He hadn't explained exactly what it did, still forgetting her Time-Lord mind was now fully capable of understanding such things. She was half way figuring it out herself when it beeped.

"Doctor!" she yelled, just as the front door opened and Mr Davies was showing him out "We gotta move, c'mon!"

They took off down the street, running in the direction the machine was guiding them in. Clara threw it at the Doctor who had to hit it a few times. They raced round a corner, and a van came speeding past them, nearly knocking them over.

"After it!" the Doctor shouted and they began to tear down the road in pursuit of the van. Eventually however the signal faded out and the van escaped, leaving the two of them gasping for air in the alleyway.

* * *

The next day they were back in Adipose industries and the Doctor lead her to a small cupboard.

"What are we in here for?" Clara asked as they squeezed in together "And you wonder why I question your plans?"

"Two reasons" the Doctor said as he soniced the door locked. "1, we need somewhere to hide until closing time, 2, the signals coming from here" he pressed a button on the screwdriver and the wall slid aside to reveal a green machine.

"Ok then" Clara said in surprise "This runs all the way through the building" she peered upwards, then looked at the Doctor "Can you hack into it?"

The Doctor was currently hitting the screwdriver. "Urgh, triple deadlock seal. I'll set it up to try, but not likely"

"Well then," Clara looked around the small cupboard "What are we going to do for the next nine hours?"

The Doctor smirked as he set the screwdriver whirring aside. "Oh I don't know." He pressed her against the wall and looked down at her "I'm sure we can think of something" Her arms wrapped around him and her legs hooked his waist as his mouth met hers.

They emerged several hours later once the place was closed with their hair a bit of a mess but otherwise composed and somehow found themselves on the window cleaning cradle watching Miss Foster tie Penny Carter to a chair in her office. The Doctor produced his stethoscope to listen to their conversation. Miss Foster was busy explaining the Adipose how she was breeding them when the Doctor spotted something.

"Donna?" he said, and Clara turned to see a woman with ginger hair on the peering through the office door window. Clara knew who she was, because she was too big a part of the Doctor's future to forget, but that was about it, she had no idea what she was doing here other than her own guesses.

"But what? What? What?" the Doctor seemed about as confused as she was. Donna then proceeded to silently explain what she was going here, not that it made a lot of sense, when they all realised Miss Foster had noticed them.

"Are we interrupting you?" she asked drily.

"Run!" Clara yelled, and the Doctor zapped the office door before sending the cradle back towards the roof. "Who is she?"

"Her name's Donna Noble!" the Doctor explained as they climbed onto the roof and raced across "I met her last Christmas, you know with the star, before we met Martha. You wanted to bartend for a few weeks and I got sort of side-tracked on my way to get you!"

Half way down the stairs they met with Donna who hugged the Doctor and yelled "Oh, my God. I don't believe it. You've even got the same suit! Don't you ever change?"

"No he doesn't" Clara supplied helpfully "Only when I make him!"

"Yeah, thanks, Clara. Not right now." The Doctor said, gripping her wrist and tugging her back towards the roof.

"Because I thought, how do you find the Doctor? And then I just thought, look for trouble and then he'll turn up." Donna began to explain as they ran "So I looked everywhere. You name it. UFOs, sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all. Like that stuff about the bees disappearing, I thought, I bet he's connected. Because the thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes. All those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax."

"What do you mean, the bees are disappearing?" the Doctor asked as he climbed into the cradle and he began to sonic the controls.

"I don't know. That's what it says on the internet. Well, on the same site, there was all these conspiracy theories about Adipose Industries and I thought, let's take a look." She announced.

The Doctor lifted Clara in after him and said "In you get!"

"What, in that thing?"

"Yes, in that thing." The Doctor said.

"But if we go down in that, they'll just call us back up again." Donna argued.

"No, no, no, because I've locked the controls with a sonic cage. I'm the only one that can control it. Not unless she's got a sonic device of her own, which is very unlikely." the Doctor said as she climbed in.

A few moments later Miss Foster entered the roof and pointed something at the cradle, causing sparks and it to drop very suddenly.

"Why do you talk?" Clara yelled as they clutched the sides. The Doctor managed to make it stop after some time.

"Hold on. Hold on. We can get in through the window." He said as he tried to sonically cut through the glass. "Can't get it open!"

Donna attempted to smash the glass with a spanner with little success, when the cable began to burn, then snap. The cradle tipped and the Doctor grabbed Clara with one arm and the side with the other. Donna however ended up dangling from the end of the broken cable.

While the Doctor shouted down to Donna, Clara looked up to see Miss Foster was attempting to cut the second cable. Snatching the screwdriver from the Doctor she aimed it upwards and zapped the pen from her hand. It fell and Clara leaned over to catch it.

"Clara, that window!" the Doctor nodded in the direction and Clara somehow managed to get it open. They crawled though and raced downstairs to save Donna.

* * *

With all the chaos, Clara and Donna didn't actually get a chance to be introduced until the Adipose were leaving planet. The three of them walked away from Adipose Industries towards the TARDIS and Donna turned to Clara.

"Hi, I'm Donna. So you're his companion then?" she said with a smile.

"That's me. Companion, girlfriend, carer, whatever you like" Clara grinned with a small salute.

"You are not my carer!" the Doctor whined making the other two laugh.

"Anyway" Clara said once Donna had freaked out about parking her car next to the TARDIS. "Fancy coming with us?"

Of course she said yes, and Clara and the Doctor began to load her stuff into the TARDIS while she ran back to the main road to leave the car keys for her mum. She approached the police barriers and tapped a girl on the shoulder. She turned her head, but her hood and hair hid her face from Donna.

"Listen, there is this woman that's going to come along. A tall blond woman called Sylvia. Tell her that bin there, all right? It'll all make sense. That bin there." Donna told her before running away.

Once she was gone Clara pulled back her hood and watched her retreating back with a wistful smile. Then she turned and disappeared.

**Please Review!**


	26. Clara Oswald's Doctor

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 26

"Ancient Rome. Well, not for them, obviously. To all intents and purposes, right now, this is brand new Rome." Donna and Clara followed the Doctor out of the TARDIS into the busy Roman market place, looking around them with interest at the ancient market place and all the people in it.

"Oh, my God. it's, it's so Roman. This is fantastic." Clara smiled as Donna marvelled in all of it around her "I'm here, in Rome. Donna Noble in Rome. This is just weird. I mean, everyone here's dead."

"Which I'm sure telling them will earn you loads of friends" Clara raised an eyebrow and looked around herself.

"Hold on a minute. That sign over there's in English." They turned to see a painted sign advertising something "Are you having me on? Are we in Epcot?"

"No, no, no, no. That's the Tardis translation circuits. Just makes it look like English. Speech as well. You're talking Latin right now." The Doctor reassured her.

Clara watched in amusement while Donna revelled in speaking Latin and asked the Doctor an awkward question, which resulted in her coming across as apparently Celtic to a fruit seller she attempted to speak actual Latin to.

"Don't our clothes look a bit odd?" Donna asked them looking from her dress, to the Doctor's suit, to Clara's denim mini skirt and leather jacket.

"Nah. Ancient Rome, anything goes. It's like Soho, but bigger." Clara grinned.

"You've been here before then?" she asked them.

"Mmm. I have. Ages ago. Before you ask, that fire had nothing to do with me. Well, a little bit. But I haven't got the chance to look around properly. Coliseum, Pantheon, Circus Maximus. You'd expect them to be looming by now. Where is everything? Try this way." The Doctor said.

"What about you?" Donna asked Clara as they followed.

"Rome, a long, long time ago. Here- well, I'm living here right now. If you do happen to see me, just ignore me" Clara said.

"What? So your past self is here at the same time as us? I thought you were human!" Donna exclaimed "And isn't this Rome?"

"No" Clara pointed upwards to a single great mountain "There are seven hills of Rome. That, is Vesuvius!"

Right on time the ground began to shake and smoke erupted from the top of the mountain as a sick feeling settled in Clara's stomach. The Doctor whirled around, panic etched on his face.

"Pompeii." He said "We're in Pompeii. And it's volcano day."

Clara and Donna exchanged wide eyed glances, before racing after the Doctor who was already running back to the TARDIS. Only when they reached the place they'd parked-

"Where the hell is the snogbox!" Clara yelled.

"You're kidding. You're not telling me the Tardis has gone." Donna groaned before turning questioningly at the two of them. "Snogbox"

"She is not a snogbox!" the Doctor said hotly.

"Where is it then?" Donna demanded.

"You told me not to tell you." The Doctor said bewildered.

"Oi. Don't get clever in Latin." Donna yelled. Clara rolled her eyes and approached the fruit seller Donna had bothered earlier.

"Sorry, but what happened to the blue box over there, cuz it's ours and it's gone!" she said.

"Sold it, didn't I?" the seller said, sounding quite pleased with himself. "It was on my patch, weren't it? I got fifteen sesterces for it. Lovely jubbly."

"Who'd you sell it to?" she asked desperately.

"Old Caecilius. Look, if you want to argue, why don't you take it out with him? He's on Foss Street. Big villa. Can't miss it." The seller told her, and with a quick thanks Clara ran off.

After replaying the information to the Doctor he raced away, telling her to get Donna. Muttering something about not being a dog Clara ran back and found the ginger a few streets away.

"Ok, Come on, we've found it!" she said, but instead of following her Donna seemed to have other plans.

"No. Well, I found this big sort of amphitheatre thing. We can start there. We can gather everyone together. Maybe they've got a great big bell or something we could ring. Have they invented bells yet?" she asked.

"What do you want a bell for?" Clara asked, although she had a feeling she knew exactly what Donna wanted to do.

"To warn everyone. Start the evacuation. What time does Vesuvius erupt? When's it due?"

"Tomorrow" Clara said, rubbing her forehead.

"Plenty of time. We could get everyone out easy." Donna said triumphantly. Clara grabbed her wrist.

"But we can't" she said, dragging her away.

"But that's what we do! He's the Doctor. He saves people!" Donna argued. Clara spun around to face her.

"Donna, Pompeii has happened, always will happen and is happening right now. It's a fixed point in time, we can't stop it." She said firmly "Besides, who do you think is going to listen if you start yelling that the worlds about to end? Now come on!"

Donna complained all the way to Caecilius's home, where they found the Doctor saving a marble bust from the tremors.

"Thank you, kind sir. I'm afraid business is closed for the day. I'm expecting a visitor." Caecilius said as Clara and Donna stepped up behind the Doctor, as though they'd been there all along.

"But that's me, I'm a visitor. Hello." The Doctor grinned.

"Who are you?" Caecilius asked in confusion.

"I am Spartacus." The Doctor announced. Clara raised an eyebrow and chose not to comment.

"And so am I." Donna had stepped forward.

"Me too!" Clara grinned, figuring she'd join in for the hell of it.

"Mister and Mrs Spartacus." Caecilius frowned at the three of them trying to figure out who went with who.

"That would be us!" the Doctor pulled Clara forward and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Oh, then brother and sister? Yes, of course. You look very much alike." Caecilius said to Donna and the Doctor.

"Really?" the three of them all asked.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not open for trade." Caecilius said firmly in attempt to get them to leave.

"And that trade would be?" the Doctor asked.

"Marble. Lopus Caecilius. Mining, polishing and design thereof. If you want marble, I'm your man." He said proudly.

"That's good. That's good, because I'm the marble inspector." The Doctor reached for the psychic paper and flashed it at them.

"By the gods of commerce, an inspection. I'm sorry, sir. I do apologise for my son." The woman snatched the young boy's goblet and poured the contents away.

"And this is my good wife, Metella. I must confess, we're not prepared for a-" Caecilius began but the Doctor interrupted, eyes fixed on the TARDIS.

"Nothing to worry about. I'm, I'm sure you've nothing to hide. Although, frankly, that object looks rather like wood to me." He crossed the room to his beloved time machine.

"I told you to get rid of it." Metella hissed.

As the Doctor talked with them and Donna began on her save the people campaign once more Clara zoned out, her eyes trained on Caecilius's face. It was perhaps slightly younger than the one she would know, but without a doubt it was the face the twelfth Doctor would take. Upon seeing it Clara felt a very sudden ache of longing for him, the real Clara Oswald's doctor.

Almost unwillingly the memories fed through and swarmed Clara's mind, of a harder, colder Doctor, but one she was love and die for all the same.

_I am the Doctor and this is my spoon!_

_You look lovely today, have you had a wash?_

_Would you just let me enjoy this moment of not knowing something, it happens so rarely._

**_Do you really think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?_**

As this memory crossed her mind Clara felt a sudden urge to hug the man in front of her. But then she looked at _her_ Doctor and overwhelming love swept over her in just one look. Clara Oswald could have her Doctor, and she could have hers.

She'd been so out of it she'd failed to notice they'd been joined by some dude called Lucius and Caecilius's daughter Evalina. She looked truly terrible, but was claiming she was being made stronger.

"It doesn't look like it to me." The Doctor told her, eyeing her pale completion and inability to stand steady.

"Is that your opinion? As a doctor?" Evalina asked. Three pairs of eyes widened at this question.

"I beg your pardon?" the Doctor said.

"Doctor. That's your name."

"How did you know that?" he asked, but she turned her attention to Donna and Clara

"And you. You call yourself Noble. And…" her eyes held Clara for a moment longer before she said "Impossible girl"

"Now then, Evelina. Don't be rude." Metella chided gently.

"No, no, no, no. Let her talk." The Doctor insisted.

"You all come from so far away." Evalina continued.

"The female soothsayer is inclined to invent all sorts of vagaries." Lucius said scornfully.

"Oh, not this time, Lucius. No, I reckon you've been out-soothsayed." The Doctor said, eyes still on Evalina. Lucius did not appreciate this at all.

"Is that so, man from Gallifrey?" he asked, and the three time-travellers turned to him in shock.

"What?"

"The strangest of images. Your home is lost in fire, is it not?" he asked.

"Doctor, what are they doing?" Donna asked, fear creeping into her voice.

"Daughter of London. And Girl without time, yet in it all at once" he said to Donna and then Clara, who took a step back.

"How does he know that?" Donna asked.

"This is the gift of Pompeii. Every single oracle tells the truth." Lucius declared.

"That's impossible." Donna reasoned.

"Nothing is impossible" Clara breathed, her eyes fixed on Lucius in wonder and slight apprehension.

"Except Clara" the Doctor added.

"Doctor, she is coming." Lucius said.

"Who is? Who's she?" the Doctor said, and Clara suddenly found herself hit with something she hadn't experienced since her conversion from human to not-quite-so-human-and-time-lady-and-a-little-bit-dalek.

_"__I don't understand" Rose studied her over the rim of her coffee mug "You were happy with him. You were with him, you stayed behind"_

_Clara leaned across the table, eyes burning. "No, another version of me stayed with him. But now I'm here and not dead and I'll do anything to get back to him"_

_"__But the other one's already with him" Rose reasoned with a frown. "There would be two of you"_

_"__I don't care" Clara snarled fiercely "I love him! I'll cross from this universe to the next to be with him. Now is Torchwood going to help me or not?"_

_Rose sighed heavily and put her mug down on the table. "The stars are going out" she murmured, looking up at the sky. "I suppose we don't have any choice."_

The images burned her mind, and using all her strength to push them away, Clara's eyes burned with regeneration energy as she collapsed. Moments later Evalina followed suit.

* * *

Donna found Clara sitting cross legged at the bottom of the swimming pool wearing denim shorts and a black sports bra. There was a blue light in the middle of her forehead and her long hair was floating out behind her and Donna wasn't quite sure what to do. Clara was sat quite calmly with her eyes closed and she seemed so peaceful it would be a bad idea to disturb her, but as the red-haired woman approached the poolside, Clara's eyes snapped open. With a powerful kick she swan to the surface, throwing her head back and taking a deep breath as she reached oxygen.

"Hi" Donna said softly as Clara swam to the edge of the pool. She hoisted herself onto the edge and left her legs dangling in the water, so Donna joined her.

"Hello" Clara said, wringing out her hair "How you doing? That was interesting as first trips go"

"Hmmm" Donna said thoughtfully "What was yours like?"

Clara frowned. "We went to New Earth about fifty billion years in the future. I don't remember much, my body got taken over by some psycho who wanted to live forever"

"Nice" Donna raised her eyebrows "Um, not to be rude, but why is your forehead blue" she indicated to the blue circle of light in the centre of Clara's forehead.

"Oh" Clara said "Just ignore that. My brain has a mind of its own"

"Just what is it? I thought you were human, but from the way you talk, and your eyes and" she took Clara's arm, tracing the faint grey lines visible deep beneath her pale skin. They extended from her wrist up to her shoulder and were also in her chest and torso. "What are these? They look like…"

"Wires" Clara said, taking her arm back gently "I'm dalek."

"Dalek?" Donna asked, but it didn't hold any of the alarm it should.

"Surely you remember the Daleks? With the Cybermen?" Clara prompted "Canary Warf" it still wasn't ringing any bells so she gave up "They're these giant pepper pots. They're the most evil things in the entire universe"

"And you're one of them?"

"Yup!" Clara popped the p "Don't worry. I'm the only good one. Or I will be. I dunno really" she winked.

"Riight" Donna said. They sat in comfortable silence, listening to the thrum of the TARDIS engines and watching the water. Finally Donna said "His own people burned. Like Pompeii"

"Yes" Clara said "We did" Her only comfort was that some part of her, echoes of the future, knew it was a lie.

**Please Review**


	27. Reunited

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

**Sorry it's been a while, I've been crazy busy. Quick thing from a few PM's I got and a few reviews. This version of Clara shouldn't exist, even in her impossible state. Being with the Doctor has exposed her to too much of the time stream, and she has a really strong connection to the original Clara Oswald, which is why she remembers him after the Name of the Doctor.**

Three days after their trip to the Planet of the Ood, the Doctor noticed that Clara was going missing. It had begun a few weeks ago; she'd disappear for periods of time and reappear with something on her mind. He had no idea where she was going. At first he thought it was the TARDIS getting her lost on purpose, but often the Doctor got the impression Clara knew the TARDIS almost as well as he did.

One morning he walked into the kitchen to find Donna eating breakfast alone. "Have you seen Clara?" he asked her, sitting down at the table and picking up a banana.

"She's gone to her room" Donna said with a shrug. "Left five minutes ago"

"I just came from her room, she's not in there" he frowned.

"Not her bedroom, her room. You know the place she goes when she needs to think!" Donna rolled her eyes and stood to put her bowl of cereal in the sink. The Doctor leapt over the table to get to her, eyes wide and banana forgotten.

"What room! Tell me!" he demanded.

"Woah, calm down space boy!" Donna yelled "I dunno, she just says it's a room the TARDIS made for her to help her clear her head. It's a grey door with circular writing on it" The Doctor had hurtled out the door before she'd finished her sentence. He charged down the corridors and around corners until he finally came to a door like the one Donna had described. The Gallifreyan writing read the words _Impossible. _

For a moment he hesitated. If Clara wanted him to know about this then she would have told him. He shouldn't invade her privacy. However his curiosity got the better of him and he went into the room.

It wasn't anything he'd seen before. There were no walls, the door melted away behind him. There was no floor. He was stood on… air? And all around him was swirling gold regeneration energy. Clara was stood in the centre, eyes identical to her surroundings and hair drifting in a non-existent breeze. She smiled softly at him.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She murmured.

"Incredible" the Doctor said, levelling with her and pulling her close, kissing the top of her head. "What is it? What is this place? I've never seen it before, and it's my TARDIS"

"She made it for me" Clara explained "So I can sort through the lives. Sometimes it just gets a little crowded in my head, but I can view them, my memories in this room. This is the time stream"

"My time stream?" the Doctor looked around in wonder "Wow!"

"You really shouldn't be in here" Clara said "I'm in control, but I could quite easily show you something from your future you mustn't see. But…" she bit her lip and looked up at him.

"But what?"

"I've been working on a surprise for you" she admitted "I'm not sure how well it will work, but we may as well try"

"What is it?" the Doctor whined "I hate surprises"

"Gallifrey burned. You can't ever go back." Clara said steadily, walking a few steps away.

"Yes" the Doctor said, his voice suddenly tight and controlled. Clara smiled at him, then closed her eyes. Slowly the room began to change.

They were stood in a field of red grass, the magnificent city of Arcadia rising up above them. They were surrounded by the white trees with silver leaves, two suns burned in the sky and peaked from behind the golden snow-capped mountains. The Doctor watched in awe as his home morphed in front of his eyes. He hadn't seen it in so long, but here it was, far more beautiful than he had remembered it. Clara had clearly spent more time here.

"It's not real," She said, her voice a touch nervous "But I thought you'd like to see it again"

The Doctor turned to her, unable to speak, and pulled her into one of the most passionate kisses they'd ever shared. He pulled away breathless and whispered "I love you so much"

Then the moment was ruined by Martha Jones.

* * *

Despite the frustration of a perfect moment being ruined by her, Clara couldn't stop the squeal when she saw Martha. They raced towards each other and wrapped their arms around each other, jumping up and down whilst giggling and shrieking like teenagers. It sort of ruined the Doctor's dramatic moment as he stepped out the TARDIS, and he had to physically remove his girlfriend to hug his friend.

"You haven't changed a bit." He grinned, taking a good look at her.

"Neither have you." Martha laughed, looking at the two of them. "Well, Clara looks a bit…"

"Alien?" she laughed "Yeah, don't even know what my body's up to these days, it's a roller-coaster"

"Don't need to tell me" the Doctor muttered "Mood swings"

"Oi" Clara whacked him "Anyways how are your family?"

"You know. Not so bad. Recovering." Martha said. Just then Donna stepped out of the TARDIS and walked towards them "Right. Should have known. Didn't take you long to replace me, then. " she teased.

"Now, don't start fighting. Martha, Donna. Donna, Martha. Please don't fight. Can't bear fighting." The Doctor said, making Clara roll her eyes.

"You wish." Donna laughed, shaking Martha's hand.

"I've heard all about you. They talk about you all the time." Donna told her.

"I dread to think."

"No, no, no. No, They say nice things. Good things. Nice things. Really good things."

"Well, Clara got over the hate thing in the end" Martha laughed.

"So there's hope for me yet!" Donna said.

"Hey, I don't hate anyone!" Clara complained "Well…"

"Care to re-evaluate" the Doctor teased.

"Shut up" Clara mumbled "Anyways, who's the lucky guy Martha?"

"What man? Lucky what?" the Doctor asked bewildered.

"She's engaged, you prawn." Donna rolled her eyes while Clara admired the diamond on Martha's left hand.

"Really? Who to?"

"Tom. That Tom Milligan. He's in pediatrics. Working out in Africa right now. And yes, I know, I've got a doctor who disappears off to distant places. Tell me about it." Martha rolled her eyes and Clara winked.

"Is he skinny?" Donna grinned.

"No, he's sort of strong."

"He is too skinny for words. You give him a hug, you get a paper cut." Donna laughed, nodding at the Doctor.

"No knocking my man" Clara scolded, jumping up to give him a quick kiss. "Now, what did you need us for?"

Martha lead them to a mobile base where they were introduced to Colonel Mace and the Doctor got over-emotional about saluting.

Operation Blue Sky complete, sir. Thanks for letting me take the lead. And, this is the Doctor. Doctor, Colonel Mace.

"But it's an honour, sir." He argued "I've read all the files on you. Technically speaking, you're still on staff. You never resigned."

"What, you used to work for them?" Donna asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, long time ago. Back in the 70's. Or was it the 80's?" the Doctor said.

"Speaking of which" Clara turned back from the machines she was examining "Am I around?"

"Yeah, when you said multiple lives…" Martha laughed "There are 2 of you currently employed, one of them is out there, and so far I've located 89 versions of yourself working for UNIT throughout history. You really are impossible!"

"There's a version of you here!" The Doctor exclaimed in panic "But that means"

"You can't, so don't even think" Clara said sharply "Now then, what's up with ATMOS?"

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	28. Soldiers

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 28

Even with her awkward half ignored knowledge of the future, Clara had to admit that a genetic anomaly for her boyfriend's daughter was one thing she really hadn't seen coming. Needless to say it made things pretty awkward, especially considering said daughter was her own size and age, but there wasn't really much time to dwell on the awkwardness because then there was an attack and Martha went missing. The soldiers began to lead them away, and the Doctor wrapped an arm around Clara's waist, falling into step behind his "daughter" and Donna, who decided to attempt to be nice.

"I'm Donna. What's your name?" she said kindly.

"Don't know. It's not been assigned." The anomaly shrugged.

"Well, if you don't know that, what do you know?" Donna asked awkwardly.

"How to fight." She said simply.

"Nothing else?"

"The machine must embed military history and tactics, but no name. She's a generated anomaly." The Doctor said grimly.

"Generated anomaly. Generated. Well, what about that? Jenny." Donna suggested.

"Jenny. Yeah, I like that. Jenny." She grinned and nodded enthusiastic, clearly pleased.

"What do you think, Dad?" Donna said teasingly.

"Good as anything, I suppose." The Doctor said shortly. Jenny glanced back at him nervously and caught Clara's eye. She tried half a smile, but it seemed convincing because Jenny grinned back.

"And who are you?" she asked cheerfully.

"Clara." was the reply, and they left it at that.

* * *

Unfortunately, like too many of their adventures they wound up locked up. The cell was fairly basic, all four of them in together and a strange number was printed on the wall, like the one in the theatre.

"More numbers. They've got to mean something." Donna said, staring at them transfixed.

"Makes as much sense as the Breath of Life story." The Doctor muttered, leaning against the wall.

"You mean that's not true?" Jenny asked in bewilderment.

"Please" Clara laughed "Just a myth. But every story has an element of truth"

"Something that's become a myth. A piece of technology, a weapon." The Doctor said, running a hand through his hair.

"So the Source could be a weapon and we've just given directions to Captain Nutjob?" Donna very helpfully observed.

"Oh, yes."

"Not good, is it?" Donna raised her eyebrows.

"We have to get out of here!" Clara decided, looking around them "And find Martha. I reckon I could rip the bars apart if I really tried…"

"And stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath." The Doctor laughed "Priorities Clara" his eyes landed on Jenny. "What, what are you, what are you, what are you staring at?"

"You keep insisting you're not a soldier, but look at you, drawing up strategies like a proper general." She said with a note of pride in her voice.

"No, no." the Doctor said firmly "I'm trying to stop the fighting."

"Isn't every soldier?" Jenny said. Donna and Clara both turned as they realised she had made a really good point.

"Well, I suppose, but that's, that's. Technically, I haven't got time for this. Clara, give me your phone" the Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver.

"And now you've got a weapon." Jenny laughed in disbelief.

"It's not a weapon." Clara scoffed "I've got some real weapons if you wanna see them!"

"Thank you Clara" the Doctor said in irritation "You're not helping. Donna would you tell her"

"Oh, you are speechless. I'm loving this. You keep on, Jenny." Donna laughed. The Doctor rang Martha. All too soon the cry for war went out.

"They're getting ready to move out. We have to get past that guard." The Doctor said.

"I can deal with him." Jenny grinned.

"No, no, no, no. You're not going anywhere. You belong here with them."

"She belongs with us. With you. She's your daughter." Donna argued.

"She's a soldier. She came out of that machine."

"Your girlfriend's twice the soldier she is and I don't see you in a hurry to leave her behind" Donna said "Yes, I know, not really her fault" then an idea struck her "Listen, have you got that stethoscope? Give it to me. Come on."

"What are you doing?" Jenny asked as Donna took the stethoscope and edged towards him.

"It's all right. Just hold still." Quickly she proved to the Doctor that his Jenny had two hearts as well.

"Does that mean she's a, what do you call a female Time Lord?" Donna asked "Like Clara"

"What's a Time Lord?"

"It's who I am. It's where I'm from." The Doctor said emotionlessly.

"And I'm from you."

"You're an echo, that's all. A Time Lord is so much more. A sum of knowledge, a code, a shared history, a shared suffering. Only it's gone now, all of it. Gone forever." The Doctor explained, pain slipping into his voice.

"What happened?"

"There was a war." Clara whispered, mind filled with memories of the timewar.

"Like this one?"

"Bigger. Much bigger."

"And you fought, and killed?"

"Yes."

"Then how are we different?" Jenny asked softly. The Doctor didn't have an answer.

* * *

Once Jenny had successfully got the door unlocked and silenced the guard Clara took charge. "Doctor, Donna, turn around. Jenny, take off your clothes"

"What?" everyone said in alarm, staring at her.

"Just do it" Clara said impatiently, forcing the Doctor and Donna around and pulling off her own shirt "They don't know the echoes dead yet, which could be very useful" Quickly she and Jenny swapped clothes until Clara was wearing the tight leather trousers and army shirt, and Jenny was attempting to understand the concept of denim and her sweater.

Somehow later on Jenny and Clara found themselves towgther, Donna and the Doctor both otherwise occupied. "So, you travel together" Jenny asked "Together, together"

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it" Clara laughed softly.

"And what's it like, the travelling?" Jenny asked eagerly.

"You sound like me when I first met him" Clara laughed. Then she sighed. "It's… wonderful"

"I'd like to do it" Jenny said wistfully. Clara smiled.

"Well go ask him then" she rolled her eyes. "I doubt he'll say no"

Jenny immediately turned to the Doctor and Donna levelled with Clara. "He's got dad-shock" she smirked.

"No, it's not that." Clara felt the smile slide from her face.

"Are you sure?" Donna frowned "Does he think she'll cramp his style? Like he's got a sports car and she's going to turn it into a people-carrier?"

Clara sighed. "Donna, He's been a father before."

"What?" this completely threw Donna.

"Long time ago" Clara said, somewhat lost in her thoughts "So long ago. And I think he can love her, a part of him already does, but I know. I can see. He feels the pain of losing them whenever he looks at her. Do you really think he can face that every day?"

Donna watched Jenny throw her arms around him. "I think he can. She'll help. But what about you? What's your issue with her?"

"I…" Clara's chest heaved. Then she pulled a face and said "I am _way_ too young to be a step-mother!"

* * *

It was obvious he wanted to be alone after they dropped Martha off, so Donna went to make dinner and Clara went to take a very long bath. When she got out and changed into a pair of sweats and a tank top, she came back into the bedroom to find him lying on her bed. Wordlessly she lay down beside him, resting her head on his chest.

After long minutes of silence, he finally asked "Do you want children?"

The question completely threw Clara. "No!" the overly aggressive response escaped her lips before she thought about it. He looked at her with a frown.

"I thought all women wanted kids." He said, looking down at her "Marriage, home, children"

"Doctor, I'm not exactly human, and I'm ridiculously old. Besides" she said softly "They die young. I couldn't put a child through that."

"That's why you're a nanny so often?" the Doctor asked "Because a part of you knows you'll never be a mother?"

"Got it in one! Besides, I don't do domestic." Clara said grimly. Then she smiled. "But if we were both human…"

"And there was no universe to see…"

"No TARDIS…"

"One heart…"

They shared a smile. "Maybe." They whispered. "If life were… boring"

"For what it's worth" Clara murmured, leaning over to kiss him warmly "Our exciting lifestyle sounds far more appealing"

"Good" the Doctor whispered "Then don't ever leave me"

"Never" Clara whispered.

But they both knew it was a promise she couldn't keep forever.

**Please Review!**


	29. Biographies

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 29

The Doctor made a very swift exit from their bedroom that morning the moment Clara started blasting what he called "21st century rubbish" from her sound system. Donna was in her own room doing god knows what and he claimed he had stuff to do, so Clara was content randomly dancing around her room for the majority of the morning. She wiggled her hips in her tiny grey shorts and white lace top along to the beat, but mostly just jumped up and down giving herself blisters as her sockless feet rubbed inside her Chuck Taylors.

She was having quite a lot of fun acting crazy and ignoring the wheezing of the snogbox that sounded suspiciously like laughter. She reached a chorus and was shouting like a teenager, ponytail wrapping around her neck she was spinning so fast, when suddenly a shooting pain stabbed through her side. It was so sharp and agonising she went crashing into the bed with a cry, legs buckling. She gritted her teeth and gingerly lifted her shirt to inspect the damage.

There was no cut or bruising, nor any visible signs of something being wrong, yet the regeneration energy was already swirling around it, and Clara was swept with dread. Getting shakily to her feet, her eyes locked with her own in thee full length mirror. Then she closed her eyes and with some difficulty aloud her mind to sink back into the time stream… stretching… searching…

"Rory! No wait, was it Nina?" her eyes flew open and she stared at the man stood in front of her. He was faceless, in the sense that the moment Clara tried to distinguish his features they shifted into gold dust.

"Well this is new" he said cheerfully "I've never been called before. What's up impossible girl?"

"What's happening to me?" Clara spat, stumbling back to the floor. He crouched beside her and looked into her eyes, wide with terror.

"You know what's happening" he said gently "I'm made from you Clara, only inside your head. I can't tell you what you don't already know"

Clara's chest heaved, but she couldn't tell if it was from pain or the sobs that threatened to escape her. "No" she choked "Please no"

"You knew it was going to happen" Rory/Nina said "You knew from the moment he changed you. You're impossible, you can't cope! You're dying Clara."

"No" Clara couldn't stop it this time and she began to sob, harder then she could ever remember in any of her lives.

"You knew it couldn't be forever" his voice had no sympathy for her. "You have to die. You always die."

"I know" she sobbed "I just-" she was interrupted by the wheezing of the TARDIS, signalling they were landing somewhere. She climbed to her feet as she heard footsteps in the corridor, and Rory had disappeared when the Doctor burst into the room.

"You alright?" he asked with immediate concern, noticing at once her bloodshot eyes and tear stained cheeks. Clara nodded, turning away from him and pulling on her black blazer.

"I'm fine" she said, forcing a smile "It's nothing… just… memories. From the song" she gestured to the stereo. The Doctor frowned and pulled her close, not really buying her pathetic excuse. After a few deep breaths they pulled apart and he grinned.

"Come on!" he cried "Biggest library in the universe!"

* * *

"The Library. So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big The." The Doctor announced as they descended a huge marble staircase on the planet they had just arrived on.

"It's like a city." Donna said in awe, looking down at everything below. It was very impressive, Clara had to admit.

"It's a world. Literally, a world. The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed." The Doctor said as they looked down from the balcony onto the roofs below. "We're near the equator, so this must be…" she watched in amusment as he held a finger in the air "biographies. I love biographies."

"Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end." Donna teased.

"You need a good death." Clara felt her heart lurch at his words "Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size." _Will you think the same when I die?_ He didn't notice the look on her face though, he was distracted by Donna's attempt to open one of the books on the balcony. "Way-a. Spoilers."

"What?"

"These books are from your future" Clara said, glancing at some of the titles "You can't read ahead"

"Isn't travelling with you one big spoiler?" Donna pointed out.

"I try to keep you away from major plot developments. Which, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at-"

"You suck at it" Clara snorted. Then she frowned and looked around her. "But you're right… doesn't it seem a bit… quiet?"

"Biggest library in the universe" the Doctor murmured "So where is everybody?" they crowded around the information screen the Doctor soniced, bringing it online.

"Maybe it's a Sunday." Donna suggested.

"No, I never land on Sundays." The Doctor said dismissively.

"He reckons Sundays are boring." She rolled her eyes, and put the dying thing out of her mind for now.

* * *

The Doctor wasn't pleased to see astronauts in the library. Donna was just going with it. Clara was beginning to enjoy herself. That was until River Song came along and Clara realised she had never hated anyone more in her life. She felt it crash over her, ten times stronger than her unnameable dislike for Sarah Jane, Rose or Martha, the moment the wretched woman took her helmet off and introduced herself, and only increased in the five minutes they first spoke with her. She openly flirted with _her_ Doctor, and called him pretty boy, dragging him off to talk in private and leaving her behind. It wasn't a feeling she enjoyed. However like so many times, she didn't have very long to dwell on it before something equally mind blowing happened.

They were gathered around one of the information screens, trying to get into the system and tracing the strange phone noise.

"Okay, here it comes. Hello?" the Doctor peered at the screen, and everyone looked in confusion as a little girl appeared on the screen. Everyone except Clara, who's jaw dropped.

"Sweet mother of god" she murmured in disbelief.

"Hello. Are you in my television?" the girl asked in confusion.

"Well, no, I'm, I'm sort of in space. Er, I was trying to call up the data core of a triple grid security processor." The Doctor very tactfully said. He turned to Clara, who was still gaping. "You're the one who covers children, why don't- What's wrong?"

"Oh my god" everyone was staring at her now "That's… that's me!"

**Please Review!**


	30. Takes One to Know One

**Allons-y impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 30

"What?" Other Dave was first to break the disbelieving silence "How can that be you? You're you!"

The girl disappeared off the screen, but no one seemed to notice. "It's… well…" Clara was far too confused to find the words to explain.

"That's not you!" Lux said, very defensively, glaring at you "That would be impossible!"

"I am impossible" Clara murmured, wondering off. The Doctor frowned at her and walked over to the other terminal. River followed him while the others began sorting the lights. Lux was still glaring at her.

"What's Cal?" the Doctor called out.

"Cal, Clara, sounds sort of similar" Donna shrugged "Probably her name."

"Yeah, it's her name" Clara supplied "but it's more than that… oh god my head!" she stumbled backwards in her ridiculous shoes and pressed her heels of her palms into her eyes, clutching her forehead. Donna put a comforting arm around her.

"Are you ok?" she asked, noticing Clara's death glares aimed at the Doctor and River.

"Yeah" Clara said through gritted teeth, "I just… it's too confusing, too many lives, and this one's more complicated than the others. Don't worry though, I'll get there"

"He loves you" Donna said reassuringly "Don't worry about her. He's oblivious to all other women I promise you. You are the centre of one extraordinarily wide universe."

"I know" Clara muttered, still trying to melt River with her eyes.

"This little girl" Donna said "Does this mean she'll die to save him?"

"That's the complicated thing" Clara said "I think… I think she might already be dead"

"Clara!" the Doctor turned away from River "Who's Cal, what is going on here?"

"Ask Mr Lux!" River said, narrowing her eyes at Clara, even though it looked as though she'd only just realised she was there.

"I'm sorry but you didn't sign your contract!" Lux said indignantly, leading to a rather heated argument about pride. Finally the Doctor gave up.

"Okay, okay, okay. Let's start at the beginning. What happened here? On the actual day, a hundred years ago, what physically happened?" the Doctor asked looking around the room.

"There was a message from the Library. Just one. The lights are going out. Then the computer sealed the planet, and there was nothing for a hundred years." River explained eagerly.

"It's taken three generations of my family just to decode the seals and get back in." Lux added, ignoring Miss Evangelista.

"There was one other thing in the last message." River continued, but she was cut off.

"That's confidential." Lux snapped.

"I trust this man with my life, with everything." River exclaimed passionately, much the surprise of virtually everyone in the room and Donna was on the verge of physically restraining Clara.

"You've only just met him." Lux cried.

"No, he's only just met me." River said firmly. Clara stopped and thought for a moment. "This is a data extract that came with the message." River handed it to the Doctor who read it out loud.

"Four thousand and twenty two saved. No survivors."

"Four thousand and twenty two. That's the exact number of people who were in the library when the planet was sealed." River said.

"But how can four thousand and twenty two people have been saved if there were no survivors?" Donna asked.

A moment later, they heard a scream. While the others ran into the lecture hall Clara stayed, memories flashing across her mind and thoughts tumbling around too quick for her to catch. Taking a deep breath she did something she knew she shouldn't and searched for the lives in the future, trying to figure out River Song.

_Hello_ _sweetie_

_Spoilers_

_What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?_

_You can trust me if you like, but where's the fun on that?_

_I can't let you die without knowing you are loved. You are loved by so many and so much and by no one more then me_

Staggering, Clara gasped as she pulled free. "You're wrong River Song" she muttered darkly under her breath as the others came into the room.

"I'm going to need a packed lunch." The Doctor yelled as he stormed in, the dark look in his eye that said he'd failed to save another life.

"Hang on." River called.

"What's in that book?" The Doctor demanded.

"Spoilers." River said mysteriously, but it sounded heavy, not like when she would say it in the future.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked "To me. Who are you to me?" Clara felt an ache settle on her heart. _Your wife. She'll be you're wife. And you're going to love her so much. _She felt an overwhelming urge to scream.

"Again, spoilers. Chicken and a bit of salad. Knock yourself out." River handed the Tupperware container to him.

"Right, you lot. Let's all meet the Vashta Nerada." The Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and crouching down to scan the shadows. While he was doing this River slid up beside wear Donna and Clara were standing, whispering to eachother.

"You travel with him, don't you? The Doctor, you travel with him." River said. She looked straight at Donna. Then she glanced at Clara "But you…"

"What of it?" Donna snapped. "You know him, don't you?"

"Oh God, do I know that man. We go way back, that man and me. Just not this far back." River said whistfully.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"He hasn't met her yet" Clara said heavily "They're both time travellers. They don't always meet in the right order"

"How do you know that?" River glared at Clara with a look of complete bewilderment "I don't have any idea who you are." Then she turned back to Donna. "He hasn't met me yet. I sent him a message, but it went wrong. It arrived too early. This is the Doctor in the days before he knew me. And he looks at me, he looks right through me and it shouldn't kill me, but it does."

"What are you talking about? Are you just talking rubbish?" Donna was considerably harsher than necessary in defence of Clara and due to the fact she'd just watched Miss Evangelista ghost "Do you know him or don't you?"

"Donna! Quiet, I'm working." The Doctor snapped. Realisation sparked in River's eyes.

"Sorry." Donna whispered.

"Donna. You're Donna. Donna Noble." River said, staring at the ginger in wonder that made her feel rather uncomfortable.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I do know the Doctor, but in the future. His personal future." River said. What she was implying made Clara feel sick. Now she realised why no one wanted to know the future. Knowing was horrible.

"C'mon Donna" she said, tugging her away as the Doctor gave a victorious cry.

"Okay, got a live one. That's not darkness down those tunnels. This is not a shadow. It's a swarm. A man eating swarm." He threw a drumstick into the shadow. By the time it hit the floor, it was just a bone. "The piranhas of the air. The Vashta Nerada. Literally, the shadows that melt the flesh. Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation on this scale, or this aggressive."

"What do you mean, most planets? Not Earth?" Donna asked in alarm.

"Mmm. Earth, and a billion other worlds. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust in sunbeams." The Doctor said.

"If they were on Earth, we'd know." Donna scoffed uncertainly, trying to convince herself more than anyone else. Clara rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't worry Donna" she drawled "They live off road kill. And occasionally people go missing. But just warn your family and friends to carry chicken to throw around" she raised an eyebrow and Donna laughed. River frowned.

"Every shadow?" she asked.

"No. But any shadow." The Doctor said creepily.

"So what do we do?" River asked practically, awaiting orders.

"Daleks, aim for the eyestalk." The Doctor said, walking across the room.

"Thanks" Clara smirked at him.

"Anytime" the Doctor winked before becoming serious "Sontarans, back of the neck. Vashta Nerada? Run. Just run." He turned to them all dramatically.

"Run? Run where?" River pointed out.

"This is an index point. There must be an exit teleport somewhere." He looked at Lux who held his hands up defensively.

"Don't look at me, I haven't memorised the schematics." He protested.

"Doctor, the little shop." Donna suddenly said, pointing to the sign that said _Gift Shop._ "They always make you go through the little shop on the way out so they can sell you stuff."

"You're right. Brilliant! That's why I like the little shop." He grinned at Clara who rolled her eyes and laughed at the number of times he had made that point.

"Okay, let's move it." Dave said purposefully, striding towards the shop.

"Wait!" Clara said, holding a hand out in panic. "Count the shadows" she whispered, eyes wide and fixed in horror at the floor.

"It's how they hunt. They latch on to a food source and keep it fresh." The Doctor said.

"What do I do?" Dave asked.

"You stay absolutely still, like there's a wasp in the room. Like there's a million wasps." The Doctor said.

"We're not leaving you, Dave." River said reassuringly.

"Course we're not leaving him. Where's your helmet? Don't point, just tell me."

"On the floor, by my bag." He looked truly scared as Anita retrieved it and the Doctor placed it on his head.

"But, Doctor, we haven't got any helmets." Donna said nervously as the astronauts put theirs on.

"Yeah, but we're safe anyway." The Doctor said. Clara resisted the urge to face palm because the situation was so grave.

"How are we safe?" Donna asked.

"We're not. That was a clever lie to shut you up. Professor, anything I can do with the suit?" the Doctor stared at River.

"What good are the damn suits? Miss Evangelista was wearing her suit. There was nothing left." Lux said, making everyone feel loads better.

"We can increase the mesh density. Dial it up four hundred percent. Make it a tougher meal." River said, ignoring him. The Doctor adjusted the suit with his screwdriver and held it out to River who was closest.

"Eight hundred percent. Pass it on." He said, but she held up her own one.

"What's that?"

"It's a screwdriver."

"It's sonic."

"Yeah, I know. Snap." She moved on without any further explanation so the Doctor turned to Clara.

"Don't you dare!" she hissed threateningly, glaring up at him. He looked for a moment like he might argue but decided against it and grabbed Donna instead.

"With me. Come on." He said, leading her into the shop. The moment he was gone River turned to Clara.

"Who are you?" she asked "Why isn't he sending you away? You don't have a suit"

"Clara Oswald. He knows better than to try. I don't need one." Clara drawled the answers while examining her nails.

"Why not?" River asked.

"I don't die. If one of them tries I'll just "regenerate" so to speak" she glanced up at River.

"You're a Time-Lady?" she looked truly alarmed.

"Takes one to know one, huh Melody Pond" Clara raised her eyebrows, enjoying the shock spreading across River's face.

"How can-" Clara spun away from her, losing interest.

"Spoilers" she whispered maliciously "Hey look" she raised her voice so the others could hear "Dave's only got one shadow!"

**Please Review!**


	31. I'm sorry

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who!**

Chapter 31

Clara gripped the Doctors hand as they raced through the library, away from proper Dave who had caught up once again. River was leading Anita, who couldn't see through her tinted visor and she was seriously regretting the decision to go without socks because her shoes were shredding her ankles. They ran through a high level walkway to another library skyscraper, when the Doctor stopped and turned to River.

"Professor, go ahead. Find a safe spot." He order, releasing Clara's hand and turning to the approaching suit.

"It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit." River said incredulously "you can't reason with it!"

"Five minutes." Said the Doctor "Clara, you go too. I'll be fine!" She nodded and raced off in the other direction with the others.

They found another round room full of books, and night had finally fallen. River began to scan the shadows with her screwdriver, until she noticed Clara watching her.

"Who are you?" She demanded angrily, quite out of nowhere. "I have no idea who you are! You are no where in this book, you are no where in the future. And how could you possibly know my real name?" She looked on the verge of tears.

"I told you" Clara said steadily "I'm Clara Oswald. I'm the impossible girl. You are Melody Pond, daughter of Amy and Rory Williams who died after the weeping angels sent them to 1950s New York where they were trapped. You were taken by the silence and raised as a psychopath to kill the Doctor but you fell in love, tore time apart and married him before restoring it. Child of the TARDIS wasn't it?"

"How? How can you know any of that?" River hissed.

"I was there!" Clara spat "I will be there, I have always been there!"

"No you weren't!" River shouted, tears spilling from her eyes "because I remember each and every precious second and I have loved him so much, and I know he has loved me and you cannot," she stamped her foot like a child in frustration "you cannot be there! Because the way he looks at you" she sighed heavily "I know he loves me. But I can't ever compete with that"

"I will be there" Clara said flatly, unmoved by River's passionate speech "but he won't realise. He'll get your future, don't worry. I won't be around much longer."

"How can you know? And why can you tell me?" River asked suspiciously, drying her eyes.

"Because I'm from his future." Clara said "And I know what happens to you. And I'm sorry" River looked into her golden eyes. She meant it. Clara hadn't bothered to hide her loathing for River, but she truly was sorry, and her heart was weighed with guilt. Guilt for what? She walked away with that, so River turned to Anita.

* * *

Clara knew they had a problem when the Doctor said the words "Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space."

River stared at him like he'd grown an extra head. "Difficult. It'll kill you stone dead."

"Yeah, it's easy to criticise." The Doctor said, refusing to look at Clara.

"It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate." River yelled at him.

"You can't do this!" Clara screamed "Do you think I could let you?"

"I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing." he argued. Panic rose in Clara's chest.

"I'll do it!" She yelled.

"LIke I could live with myself!" The Doctor declared, fixing his intense gaze on her. "Besides, it's not compatible with Dalek technology, and by killing you we risk killing Charlotte"

"But-" he cut her off.

"No buts! I'm sorry" then he kissed her long and hard, and Clara gripped at his arms as she felt the needle go in her neck and her consciousness slip away.

* * *

_Oswin adjusted her tool belt as she raced as fast as she could through the library. Blood poured from a cut on her head and her gun was out of bullets, but she kept pounding through the halls, a laugh caught in her throat and crazy smile on her face._

_She burst into the room to where her companion was furiously working at a computer._

_"Did you kill him?" Nina asked._

_"Yup" Oswin grinned "GI falls again" then her smug smile faltered "but I didn't die, the timestream just healed me. Why are we still here?"_

_"Because the clever boys not done being the stupid hero" Nina said, frantically pulling switches and gesturing to where the Doctor was preparing to hook himself up the computer._

_"What?" Oswin leaned forward and groaned "Why does he think that it's ok to do these things?"_

_"You'll have to do it instead" Nina sighed "I'm setting up a teleport. I'll physically swap your locations"_

_"Ok, hurry up!" Oswin began hacking into the system "Here we go again" she muttered under her breath._

Clara woke to the computer saying "Autodestruct 7 minutes" Her mind was fuzzy and she was lying on the cold hard floor. Opening her eyes she saw the Doctor was handcuffed and unconscious a few feet away."What are you doing?" Clara asked River. She was stringing up the wires and doing a lot of complicated things between the computer and the cables.

"I won't let him die." River said determinedly "I'll do it instead"

Clara watched her carefully. "I'm sorry" she said again "I truly am"

_"Hang on" Nina looked at the screen, frowning at the image below "This woman, River Song, she's doing it in his place""_

_"What?" Oswin said, tossing back her hair "Well that's not on. It's my job!"_

_"Please tell me you aren't pouting because someone is deciding to die instead of you" Nina looked at her incredulously "Jeez Os, priorities much"_

_"Just saying" Oswin muttered._

_"Well what are you going to do?" Nina asked "Are you going to save River Song?"_

"What on earth have you got to be sorry for?" River asked, sitting down and working on the cables, ignoring the tears falling from her eyes. "I was under the impression that you didn't like me very much. And from the future he has with me, and the way you look at him, I can't really blame you."

"I'm not real" Clara said, leaning against the wall and staring at River, but not really seeing her. "I'm an echo of a girl who will jump into the Doctor's time-stream in his future. I did it to save him. That's what I'm designed to do. That's how I know your future. I can remember the echoes that exist in the future"

"I thought you were a time-lady?" River said

"I was once" Clara shrugged "The Master restored my mind, and a regeneration cycle, but I've only got one heart. I've screwed up this timeline. I was never supposed to travel with him, let alone fall in love" Clara gave a hollow laugh "And I can only hope it will fix itself, that time can be rewritten. That I can have a little longer"

"So he might never love me?" River choked. Clara met her gaze with cold eyes.

"I'm dying" she said "I don't know how long I have left. You might still have a chance, it all depends on how long I live and how long it takes for him to move on. Wish hard Melody Pond"

"You would actually let me?" River frowned "You actually telling me to wish for a future that destroys what you have forever. Why?"

"Like I said," Clara sighed "I'm sorry. Because there is a girl somewhere in this library that can save you, should save you. But she doesn't"

_"I don't know..." Oswin bit her lip. "I still have three years left. I could live them"_

_"Unless you're destroyed the moment you fail?" Nina suggested "It's always a possibility. Frankly if you let her die when you could have then dying straight away might be better then living with the guilt"_

_"Hmm" Oswin said thoughtfully. On the screen the Doctor was coming around and yelling at River. "He doesn't want her to die. Whoever she is. And I want him to be happy" she murmured. Her mind was already made up._

_"Come on then" Nina said briskly walking over to the makeshift teleport thing they'd made "We have to be quick. Only one and a half minutes to go" she handed Oswin the button. "That's the activator, but you have to hit it at exactly the right moment. A second too late and you miss your shot. Got it?" Oswin nodded determinedly._

"If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you." River said through her tears to the Doctor.

"Time can be rewritten." The Doctor begged.

"Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare. It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run."

_"River, you know my name." Oswin looked up in interest as she heard the Doctor speak below. "You whispered my name in my ear." Oswin's mind began to race. If she was going to save this woman, she wanted to figure out who she was. She tried to search for a woman who knew the Doctor's name. She ignored the burning in her mind, she was so close. Hundreds of faces and memories flashed past her. Her brain couldn't cope but she had to know._

_Three, two, one._

_Oswin went for the button just as it hit her. The 11th Doctor and this woman. Together. Kissing as time was restored around them. Jealousy surged through her, making her stop. _

_Only a moment later noise surrounded her, she was dragged back to reality. She hit the button a second too late. The teleport glitched, but it could only transport the living. And Oswin had failed to save River Song's life._

_Collapsing to the floor, Oswin felt the weight of what she had done crash down on her. She didn't know why, she had killed countless people before. But the Doctor would love this woman. And Oswin had let her jealousy kill her._

_She felt the time stream tug at her, ready to tear her away from her life and relieve her of her guilt. She closed her eyes, preparing to disappear, when suddenly she remembered something. "No!" she growled, jumping to her feet "I have to save her. Even a tiny bit!" Then she raced off through the library to remind the Doctor of the sonic screwdriver._

**Please Review!**


	32. Impossible Encounters

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 31

Clara rolled her eyes as she put the phone back down and leaned back in her sun-lounger, pushing the ultra-dark sunglasses up her nose. The glass above her may have been fifteen feet thick but the heat was nice, and she kicked her legs out, wriggling her toes as she sighed with content.

"What did he want?" Donna asked, adjusting her white robe.

"Sapphire waterfalls, four hour journey there and back, no thank you" Clara said, smiling slightly to herself "Like I'm going to spoil one of our few relaxing trips out by taking a risk like that. Besides, I really need this spa day"

Donna laughed. "Four hours both way? That's like a school trip!"

"Hmm" Clara agreed "This is much nicer"

They lapsed into comfortable silence, both of them absorbing themselves in intergalactic magazines, reading up on the latest alien gossip, about people they had never heard of but were interesting to read about none the less. Finally Donna grew bored and her mind began to wander back to their trip to the library, the life she had thought she'd had, then lost. The pain had faded with the further realisation that it hadn't been real, but she still found herself thinking about it a lot. Tension between Clara and the Doctor had been high for a few days after that, and Donna hadn't dared ask. But there was a lot Donna didn't dare ask Clara about these days.

"Clara..." she began. The other girl didn't look up, only made a noise of acknowledgement. Donna sighed and stared at her friend. The Doctor couldn't see it, and a lot of the time Donna found she couldn't either, but Clara was the same anymore. Bone thin, tired a lot and bruises under her eyes. Somehow she hid them, but every now and and then Donna could see.

"Yes Donna?" Clara asked when no question followed a moment later.

"Do you... do you feel ok?" Donna asked tentatively. Clara was silent for a moment. Then she laughed, and Donna wasn't sure if she imagined the forced note behind it.

"Course, I'm fine" she said. The sunglasses hid her eyes, but Donna suspected they weren't shining with honesty.

* * *

Donna Noble first met the Impossible girl on Christmas Eve, the night of the Christmas star. While the others ran away towards the city, Alice stared at whatever was on her back, and she found herself running towards the river. She ignored the cries of her friends and raced as fast as she could to Canary Wharf where she found lots of soldiers in red berets attempting to shoot down the web hanging in the sky. Carefully she snuck around the trucks and peered at the officers behind.

"Trap One to Greyhound Fifteen. What is your report? Over." someone said over a radio.

"From the evidence, I'd say he managed to stop the creature. Some sort of red spider. Blew up the base underneath the barrier, flooded the whole thing. Over." the soldier said into his radio in reply. "

And where is he now? Over." the voice on the other end sounded both strained and relieved.

"We found a body, sir. Over." Donna watched as an ambulance stretcher was brought over, a sheet covering whoever was lying on it. Donna was suddenly swept with an overwhelming sense of dread for some unknown reason.

"Is it him? Over." the officer didn't sound as though he wanted an answer.

"I think so. He just didn't make it out in time." the soldier said heavily.

"And his associate?"

"A Miss Clara Oswald according to our most recant records. They've located her body in a bar in London. We don't know how she knew, but she killed herself when he died."

Donna watched as they lifted the stretcher into the ambulance and an arm dropped from underneath the sheet. A strange metal object she faintly recognised, as though from a dream, clattered to the ground. "The Doctor is dead. Must have happened too fast for him to regenerate. Escort the ambulance back to UNIT base."

Donna turned away and walked on, trying to understand the overwhelming sadness that was filling her chest as though it would burst. Suddenly a girl came hurtling towards her, appearing from seemingly nowhere.

"What happened?" she cried breathlessly, looking at Donna with a terrifying desperation in her eyes "Did they find him? Is he there?"

"I don't know." Donna suddenly found herself trying very hard not to cry "A bloke called the Doctor, or something."

"That's him, where'd he go?" she asked, her eyes sparking with some gold energy that couldn't possibly be real.

"They took him away. He's dead. I'm sorry, did you know him? I mean, they didn't say his name. Could be any doctor." she said, although it was pretty unlikely

"I came so far." she whispered.

"It, it could be anyone." Donna tried again, with less confidence. The girl looked so lost.

"What's your name?" she suddenly asked.

"Donna. And you?"

"I'm not... Hardly important" she had suddenly become very interested in something on Donna's back.

"Why do you keep looking at my back?" Donna asked.

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are. You keep looking behind me. You're doing it now. What is it? What's there? Did someone put something on my back?" She twisted in an attempt to see over her own shoulder, and when she looked back, the girl was gone.

* * *

She next met her a few months later, the night she got sacked, the night the hospital went to the moon and back. She wandered down the dark empty street in no particular direction, when suddenly there was a blinding flash of light in a nearby ally and the Impossible Girl came stumbling out, running again.

"Blimey! Are you all right? What was that, fireworks or" she peered at the girl, suddenly remembering where she recognised her from.

"I dunno..." She seemed pretty dazed "I was... That's odd... I"

"You're the one. Christmas Eve. I met you in town." Donna said accusingly, recalling their strange and rather one sided conversation. "Donna? Right?" She grinned.

"What was your name?"

Once again the girl ignored her question. Donna was sure she recognised her, not just from before, but like she was from a dream. Then she noticed that she was doing it again, staring at the unseeable on her back.

"You're doing it again." She said through gritted teeth.

"What?"

"Looking behind me. People keep on doing that, looking at my back. People in the street. Strangers. I just catch them sometimes, staring at me. Like they're looking at something. And then I get home, and I look, and there's nothing there. See? Look, now I'm doing it!" She spun around like a dog chasing its tail.

"What are you doing for Christmas?" The girl suddenly asked, changing the subject quickly and randomly. She seemed to have an annoying habit of doing that.

"What am I what?" Donna asked, getting annoyed.

"Next Christmas. Any plans?"

"I don't know. That's ages away. Nothing much, I suppose. Why?" She said wearily. "

You got that raffle ticket" her eyes were suddenly shining with that golden energy once more "Use it Donna Noble, and get out of London for Christmas!"

"Why won't you tell me your name? I think you should leave me alone." Donna shouted in frustration, storming passed with her mind spinning.

* * *

She didn't see her again for several months. Not until the ATMOS systems went wild. Then when she saw the flash of light Donna went to find her. They sat on a park bench staring at the stars and Donna began to question where she'd left her sanity.

"The ATMOS" she explained "Britain ain't got it too bad, not so much gas. But everywhere else, most of the East, it's getting choked in it"

"Can't anyone stop it?" Donna asked helplessly.

"Yeah," she smiled slightly "These brave guys, up there right now, any second" Right on cue the sky burned in a giant explosion. Neither of them batted an eyelid. "Sontaran ship. The Torchwood team" she murmured when Donna asked for an explanation "Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, gave their lives. Captain Jack Harkness has gone to the Sontaran home world. That's all of them, no one left"

"You're always wearing the same clothes." Donna said, staring at the ripped skinny jeans and black leather jacket with hood she wore. "Why won't you tell me your name?"

"Times gone wrong Donna" she once again avoided the question "Everything that's destroying this world, the Titanic, the Adipose, the ATMOS, it was all stopped by this one incredible man" a smile like no other spread across her face.

"That Doctor?" Donna said almost instinctively.

"You knew him."

"Did I? When?" She asked in flat surprise.

"I think you dream about him sometimes. It's a man in a suit. Tall, thin man. Great hair. Some really great hair." She grinned again, that special smile.

"Who are you?" Donna asked, her voice heavy and tired.

"You've travelled with him, Donna. You've travelled with the Doctor in a different world. With him and a girl like me"

"I never met him, and he's dead. And I dunno who you are"

"He died underneath the Thames on Christmas Eve and the version of me killed herself because she'd failed to save him, she couldn't handle the guilt, but you were meant to be there. He needed someone to stop him, and that was you. You made him leave. You saved his life. Technically hers as well but that's a completely different mess when it comes to time" Donna flashed back to the memory, the memory that seemed like an entire lifetime ago.

"Stop it. I don't know what you're talking about. Leave me alone!" She yelled, jumping to her feet.

"Something's coming, Donna. Something worse." She said warningly.

"The whole world is stinking. How can anything be worse than this?" Donna yelled hysterically.

"Trust me. We need the Doctor more than ever It's coming, Donna. It's coming from across the stars and nothing can stop it. The darkness" she looked scared now.

"Well, what do you keep telling me for? What am I supposed to do? I'm nothing special. I mean, I'm, I'm not. I'm nothing special. I'm a temp. I'm not even that. I'm nothing." Donna was on the verge of tears by this point.

The girl laughed. "Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation."

"Oh, don't. Just don't. I'm tired. I'm so tired." She spat.

"I need you to come with me." She said "And you will. Three weeks time. But you've got to be certain. Because when you come with me, Donna, sorry, so sorry, but you're going to die." And with those chilling words, she disappeared.

**Please Review!**


	33. An echo and a rose

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 33

The Doctor flew the TARDIS back to earth in a state of panic, Clara and Donna clutching the console for dear life. They landed with a heavy bump and the Doctor raced outside into a bright and ordinary morning in a calm looking street.

"It's fine. Everything's fine. Nothing's wrong, all fine." He said breathlessly, in confusion and relief. "Excuse me." He shouted to a milkman "What day is it?"

"Saturday." He replied.

"Saturday. Good. Good, I like Saturdays." He muttered to himself. Clara and Donna stepped out the TARDIS, still looking pale from the crazy journey.

"So, I just met one of your echoes that you're always talking about?" Donna asked Clara as they looked around.

"One that shouldn't have lived, yeah. She's from the parallel universe that Rose Tyler and her family are living in." Clara said, shoving her hands into the pockets of her military green bomber jacket.

"And Rose Tyler is the Bad Wolf?" Donna asked.

"Something like that" Clara shrugged "She looked into the time vortex, absorbed it's power, obliterated several Daleks and then the Doctor took the power from her. But while she had it she spread the words across the universe, a message to lead herself to that moment. An endless loop, like the one with Jenny"

"How do we know it's the same echo?" Donna asked hopefully.

"Because I remember" Clara said shortly.

"And if she can cross from her parallel world to your parallel world, than that means the walls of the universe are breaking down, which puts everything in danger. Everything. But how?" the Doctor interrupted their exchange, whirling round and running back into the TARDIS.

"Why'd Rose Tyler leave?" Donna ask.

"The Doctor… well…" Clara was looking for the words to explain when there was a deafening bang and the TARDIS began to shake.

"What the hell was that?" Donna shrieked.

"Don't know. It came from outside." The Doctor said. Donna was first to reach the doors, the Doctor not far behind her which was good because her momentum would have sent her falling into space if he hadn't been there to stop her.

"The Earth's gone!" Clara said in disbelief as the other two stared at the rocks floating in space outside. She was reading the scanner again and again. "We've not moved, we're fixed, but the Earth, an entire planet, has literally just disappeared beneath us"

The Doctor raced around to check, and they all fell into silence.

"But if the Earth's been moved, they've lost the Sun. What about my Mum? And Granddad? They're dead, aren't they? Are they dead?" Donna finally spoke, her voice cracking in fear.

"I don't know, Donna. I just don't know. I'm sorry, I don't know." The Doctor said earnestly. Clara kept working at the scanner refusing to look up.

"That's my family. My whole world." Donna whispered.

"There's no readings. Nothing. Not a trace. Not even a whisper. Oh, that is fearsome technology." The Doctor sounded almost impressed.

"So what do we do?" Clara asked, looking at him.

"We've got to get help." he said grimly, setting the TARDIS into flight.

They landed in a posh looking corridor, only when they stepped out the doors they were greeted by a giant rhino. He chanted in a strange language, which the Doctor replied in, and they immediately stood to attention. They were led to a room where they were introduced to a silver haired woman wearing a long gown. She took one look at the Doctor and began to pace.

"Time Lords are the stuff of legend. They belong in the myths and whispers of the Higher Species. You cannot possibly exist." She said. Clara didn't want to know how she had figured it out that quickly.

"Yeah. More to the point, I've got a missing planet." The Doctor said.

"Then you're not as wise as the stories would say. The picture is far bigger than you imagine. The whole universe is in outrage, Doctor. Twenty four worlds have been taken from the sky." She told him. She lead him to a computer screen and showed him. "Locations range far and wide, but all disappeared at the exact same moment, leaving no trace."

"Callufrax Minorr. Jahoo. Shallacatop. Woman Wept. Clom. Clom's gone? Who'd want Clom?" the Doctor put on his glasses and peered at the screen.

"All different sizes. Some populated, some not. But all unconnected." The woman stated.

"What about Pyrovillia?" Donna sad, suddenly struck with a thought.

"Who is the female?" the woman asked with a frown, as though she had only just noticed her. She was still ignoring Clara.

"Donna. I'm a human being. Maybe not the stuff of legend but every bit as important as Time Lords, thank you." She said fiercly, unsettling the woman and making the Doctor smirk with pride. "Way back, when we were in Pompeii, Lucius said Pyrovillia had gone missing."

"Pyrovillia is cold case. Not relevant." The Jadoon said.

"How do you mean, cold case?"

"The planet Pyrovillia cannot be part of this. It disappeared over two thousand years ago." The woman said, as though it were unimportant.

"Yes, yes, hang on. But there's the Adipose breeding planet, too. Miss Foster said that was lost, but that must've been a long time ago." Clara added stepping forward. The woman frowned at her, but said nothing.

"That's it! Donna, Clara, brilliant. Planets are being taken out of time as well as space. Let's put this into 3-D." he fiddled with the thing and a hologram was projected in front of them. "Now, if we add Pyrovillia and Adipose Three. Something missing. Where else, where else, where else? Where else lost, lost, lost, lost. Oh! The Lost Moon of Poosh." As he added the last sphere the image rearranged itself.

"What did you do?" the woman asked.

"Nothing. The planets rearranged themselves into the optimum pattern. Oh, look at that. Twenty seven planets in perfect balance. Come on, that is gorgeous." He smirked at Clara who raised a dark eyebrow with a smile.

"Oi, don't get all spaceman." Snapped Donna, less impressed "What does it mean?"

"All those worlds fit together like pieces of an engine. It's like a powerhouse. What for?" the Doctor asked the room.

"Who could design such a thing?" the woman asked in disbelief.

"Someone tried to move the Earth once before. Long time ago. Can't be." The Doctor murmured.

Suddenly Clara gave an inhuman shriek in agony, collapsing forward and clutching her head. The woman looked up in alarm, the Doctor raced to her side and the Jadoon stood ready to attack any threat. Clara looked up a moment later, blue light shining in the centre of her forehead. "Daleks" she said emotionlessly.

Some while later Donna found herself sitting on the stairs. A white haired woman with pink eyes approached her and offered a tray. "You need sustenance. Take the water, it purifies." She said kindly.

"Thanks." Donna took it, too drained to smile properly.

"There was something on your back." The albino said simply, not with fear as others had before.

"How do you know that?" Donna frowned.

"You are something new."

"Not me." She replied with a humourless laugh "I'm just a temp. Shorthand, filing, hundred words per minute. Fat lot of good that is now. I'm no use to anyone." She looked over to the woman, the Doctor and Clara where they stood conferring. The chief of universal law enforcement, with her knowledge and power in the universe. The Time-Lord, endless knowledge, kindness and the saver of worlds, strong and powerful. Then an Impossible Girl, immortal and beautiful, stood beside him with skinny jeans and knee high boots with stiletto heels, the greatest warrior in the universe.

"I'm so sorry for your loss." The albino said.

"Yeah. My whole planet's gone." Donna murmured.

"I mean the loss that is yet to come. God save you." She whispered in fear, before walking up the stair. Donna didn't have time to contemplate it though, because the Doctor and Clara walked over.

"Donna, come on, think. Earth. There must've been some sort of warning. Was anything happening back in your day, like electrical storms, freak weather, patterns in the sky?" he asked her desperately.

"Well, how should I know? Er, no. I don't think so, no." she replied unhelpfully.

"Oh, okay, never mind."

"Although, there were the bees disappearing." Remembering something from before the investigation of Adipose, when her whole world had changed.

"The bees disappearing. The bees disappearing. The bees disappearing!" his tone changing eachtime he said it as realisation dawned on him.

"How is that significant?" the woman asked.

"On Earth we had these insects. Some people said it was pollution or mobile phone signals." Donna explained, standing up.

"Or, they were going back home." Clara said in realisation.

"Back home where?" Donna asked.

"Planet Melissa Majoria." The Doctor exclaimed happily.

"Are you saying bees are aliens?" Donna asked in disbelief, watching him.

"Don't be so daft. Not all of them. But if the migrant bees felt something coming, some sort of danger, and escaped? Tandocca." The Doctor announced to the room, really looking too pleased with himself then Clara thought was healthy for his ego.

"The Tandocca Scale." The woman had caught on apparently.

"Tandocca Scale is the series of wavelengths used as a carrier signals by migrant bees. Infinitely small. No wonder we didn't see it. It's like looking for a speck of cinnamon in the Sahara, but look, there it is. The Tandocca trail. The transmat that moved the planets was using the same wavelength, we can follow the path." The Doctor said, pointing it out for Donna.

"And find the Earth? Well, stop talking and do it." Donna ordered.

"I am." The Doctor said and the three of them ran into the TARDIS. "We're a bit late. The signal's scattered, but it's a start." He poked his head out the TARDIS door to where the Jadoon and the woman were waiting. "I've got a blip. It's just a blip, But it's definitely a blip." He told them.

"Then according to the Strictures of the Shadow Proclamation, I will have to seize your transport and your technology." The woman announced.

"Oh, really? What for?" the Doctor looked only mildly annoyed at this.

"The planets were stolen with hostile intent. We are declaring war, Doctor, right across the universe, and you will lead us into battle." She declared.

"Right. Yes. Course I will. I'll just go and get you the key." He said, sliding back into the TARDIS. A moment later they were dematerialising and in flight, ignoring the shouts they left behind. They flew for a while when they suddenly came to a stop.

"It's stopped." The Doctor said, opening the doors.

"What do you mean? Is that good or bad? Where are we?" Donna asked, looking at the multi-coloured nebula below.

"The Medusa Cascade. I came here when I was just a kid, ninety years old. It was the centre of a rift in time and space." The Doctor murmured.

"I remember… gave me a heart attack" Clara said, looking down as well "I always wondered what it looked like."

"What?" Donna asked.

"We were undergraduates. He and three others stole a TARDIS and came to seal the rift. That's how he got the name." Clara said "Scared me half to death"

The Doctor was about to question this, but Donna got in first. "So, where are the twenty seven planets?"

"Nowhere. The Tandocca Trail stops dead. End of the line." Clara said, because it didn't look like the Doctor had it in him to say it. They lapsed into silence and went inside. It looked like there was nothing left to do.

Until the phone rang.

"Phone!" the Doctor yelled.

"Martha?" Clara said into the mobile. She got no reply. "Hang on, it's a signal!"

"Can we follow it?" Donna asked desperately.

"Oh, just watch me." The Doctor yelled, pulling out his stethoscope. "Got it. Locking on."

"We're travelling through time. One second in the future. The phone call's pulling us through." Clara said, reading the scanner.

"Three, two, one." The Doctor shouted. The three of them screamed as the TARDIS shook around them and the planets appeared outside. Finally they stopped shaking.

"Twenty seven planets. And there's the Earth. But why couldn't we see them?" Donna asked, looking at a dishevelled Doctor and Clara.

"The entire Medusa Cascade has been put a second out of sync with the rest of the universe. Perfect hiding place. Tiny little pocket of time. But we found them. Ooo, ooo, ooo, what's that? Hold on, hold on. Some sort of Subwave Network." He squeezed in next to Clara to look at the scanner and three video feeds appeared in front of them. Martha Jones, Torchwood and Sarah Jane.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jack said, unable to stop the grin. "Doctor, it's the Daleks."

"Yes we've noticed" Clara rolled her eyes.

"Oh, he's a bit nice. I thought he'd be older." The girl beside Jack with dark hair and freckles said.

"He's not that young." The man on Jack's other side said disgruntledly.

"And he's spoken for" Clara added.

"It's the Daleks. They're taking people to their spaceship." Sarah Jane interrupted their covnversation with the issue at hand.

"It's not just Dalek Caan." Martha began to explain, and then Jack told them how the human race had surrendered.

"Sarah Jane. Who's that boy? That must be Torchwood. Oh, they're brilliant." The Doctor grinned at the people on the screen. "Look at you all, you clever people."

"That's Martha." Donna smiled. "And who's he?" she suddenly noticed Jack.

"Captain Jack. Don't. Just don't." the Doctor said warningly.

"It's like an outer space Facebook." Clara laughed. Suddenly the screen went blank. "There's another signal coming through.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" the Doctor called.

"Your voice is different, and yet its arrogance is unchanged." Davros's voice came through, sending chills through the listener's spines. "Welcome to my new Empire, Doctor. It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and the triumph of Davros, lord and creator of the Dalek race."

The Doctor froze. Clara was trying to fight back the Dalek inside her. "But you were destroyed. In the very first year of the Time War, at the Gates of Elysium." The Doctor finally said. "I saw your command ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. I tried to save you."

"But it took one stronger than you." Davros said.

"Dalek Caan himself." Clara whispered.

"I flew into the wild and fire. I danced and died a thousand times." Caan said like it was the greatest achievement of all time.

"Emergency Temporal Shift took him back into the Time War itself." Davros boasted.

"But that's impossible. The entire War is timelocked." The Doctor protested.

"And yet he succeeded. Oh, it cost him his mind, but imagine. A single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations?" the smugness in his voice was evident.

"And you made a new race of Daleks."

"I gave myself to them, quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body." He opened his clothes to reveal his bare ribs with a few nerve endings covering them, his internal organ's exposed. "New Daleks. True Daleks. I have my children, Doctor. What do you have, now?"

"After all this time, everything we saw, everything we lost, I have only one thing to say to you. Bye!" The Doctor threw back a lever and the TARDIS was suddenly in flight again. They said nothing until they landed on earth and stepped out into a deserted street.

"Like a ghost town." Donna commented, looking around.

"Sarah Jane said they were taking the people. What for? Think, Donna. When you met that echo in that parallel world, what did she say?" the Doctor turned to Donna and Clara in desperation.

"Just, the darkness is coming." Donna said softly.

"Anything else?" he pressed. Then something in Donna and Clara's faces changed.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Donna asked, and the Doctor turned to see two figures stood some way away in the street. Clara, with shorter, straighter hair wearing a blue dress, and Rose Tyler, with a blue leather jacket and a rather large gun. They began to run. And the Doctor ran towards them as well.

No one saw the Dalek.

Clara let out an agonised scream as the Dalek shrieked "Exterminate!" the beam left it's gun. She launched forward with the intention to throw herself in its path, but she was too far away. It grazed the Doctor, but he lit up like an x-ray and fell to the floor. Clara collapsed down beside him as Jack appeared behind her and blasted the Dalek.

"Hey, I got you" she said breathlessly as Rose and the other echo drew level with them. "Don't you die on me, please God. Don't you dare die!"

"Get him into the Tardis, quick. Move." Jack ordered, hoisting him up and helping them half drag him back to his ship.

"What, what do we do? There must be some medicine or something." Donna said hysterically.

Clara backed away from the Doctor and Jack wrapped his arms around her. The Doctor's hand began to glow.

"It's starting." He said

"Here we go. Good luck, Doctor." Jack said.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Donna shrieked.

"When he's dying, his er, his body, it repairs itself. It changes." Rose explained shakily.

"But you can't!" the echo screamed "I came so far!"

"I'm sorry, it's too late." The Doctor said "I'm regenerating. I love you Impossible Girl!" Then he burst into golden energy.

**Please Review!**


	34. Journeys End

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 34

Clara watched in horror as the golden energy poured from the Doctor's hands and head, the ache inside of her so painful her chest might just break. The time stream pulled at her threatening to tear her apart as punishment for her failure to save him. Clara almost wished it would, but the Master had made her too real.

Jack had his arms wrapped firmly around her, and Rose, Donna and the echo were stood watching in horror. Clara again felt images swarm before her eyes, the ones she had locked away deep in her mind, of a funny man with puppy dog eyes, a bow tie and a big chin. Something felt wrong about that, and still she felt her tug of longing.

Then, with effort, the Doctor aimed both his hands at the jar containing his spare hand. They watched as it absorbed all the energy and the Doctor was released, looking just the same.

"Now then. Where were we?" He said. They stared at him, completely stunned. He knelt down beside the glowing spare hand. "There now." He blew on the jar and the glowing stopped. He looked up at them "You see? Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me." He gestured to himself and grinned at a slowly recovering Clara. "So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand. Remember?" He looked at Rose "Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"

Clara took a tentative step forward and looked at him. Then she threw herself into his arms and kissed him long and hard.

Finally they broke apart and turned to look at Rose and the echo. She smiled.

"So, you're another one" Clara said, her voice colder then probably necessary.

"Yup!" The echo said "I... I was meant to save him when the cybermen came. But I didn't die. After that I could remember everything. So I went to Torchwood, because I didn't want to die."

"They fixed you?" Clara raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"We're not even sure how" Rose chipped in "Just after a lot of work she had a normal human timeline and we destroyed the instincts that kill you upon the Doctor's death. She doesn't even have the thing that makes her sacrifice herself for you anymore"

"Not that I wouldn't" the echo said hastily, smiling at the Doctor. He grimaced. "Look" she took a step forward. "I know you have your Clara. But I had to find you. I can remember everything, your adventures together that is, and I love you! I had to find you!"

The Doctor stared at her pleading face unsure what to say. The the power cut out. "They've got us!" He said "Power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop"

The TARDIS tilted with a jerk. "There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination." Jack said.

Donna looked at the Doctor and Clara. "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?"

"Rose, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?" The Doctor looked at his ex-companion as a shadow crosses her face.

"The darkness" she said hopelessly.

"The stars were going out" Donna murmured.

"One by one" Rose confirmed.

"We've been building this dimension canon thing" the echo explained "So I could cross to this universe."

"Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything." Rose looked at the Doctor desperately.

Donna looked at the echo. "In that parallel world you said something about me"

"The dimension cannon could measure timelines, that's partly how we sorted me out" the echo said "and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."

"But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick." Donna looked both confused and terrified.

The scanner beeped. "Welcome to the Dalek Crucible" Clara murmured.

The metallic voice came from outside. "Doctor you will step forth or die"

"We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in"

"You told me nothing could get through those doors" Rose said, recalling the first time they met.

"You've got extrapolator shielding" Jack said.

"Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power." The Doctor said.

"They're experts at fighting TARDISs. That wooden door, is just a wooden door" Clara said.

"What about you dimension jumps?" Jack looked at the echo and Rose.

"They need twenty minutes"

"Your teleport?" Clara asked Jack.

"Went down with the power"

"Right then" the Doctor took a deep breath. "All of us together. Yeah. Donna? Donna?"

She snapped out of her daze. "Yeah" she said.

"I'm sorry" the Doctor said, tightening his grip around Clara's waist. "There's nothing else we can do"

"No. I know" Donna said softly.

"Surrender Doctor and face your Dalek masters" the metallic voice came from outside once more.

"Daleks" Rose said, her voice tightening with fear.

"Oh God" Jack voiced what everyone was pretty much feeling.

"It has been good though" the Doctor said, trying for a smile "All of us. All of it. Everything we did." He looked at Donna "You were brillient" he looked at Rose "And you were brillient" he looked at Jack "and you were brillient." He stopped and looked at Clara. "And you were..." He couldn't finish, only leaned down and kissed her, warm and tender. A goodbye. Just in case. "I love you" he whispered.

"I love you too" she whispered back.

Then he led them out the TARDIS into the Crucible where the daleks were screaming "All hail the Daleks!" Donna and the echo hung behind though.

"Donna, Clara you're no safer in there" the Doctor yelled behind him. Then the door slammed shut, trapping them inside.

"Doctor?" Donna called from inside "What have you done!"

"It wasn't me!" He protested. "I haven't done anything!"

"We're not staying behind!" The echo shouted, pounding on the door.

"What did you do?" The Doctor asked the red Dalek furiously.

"This is not of Dalek origin" it replied mechanically.

"Doctor!" Donna and the echo yelled.

"Stop it! She's my friend. Now open the door and let her out." The Doctor demanded in fury.

"This is Time Lord treachery." The Dalek declared.

"Me? The door just closed on its own."

"Nevertheless, the Tardis is a weapon and it will be destroyed." A trapdoor opened underneath the TARDIS and it dropped.

"What are you doing!" The Doctor shouted "Bring it back! What have you done? Where's it going?"

They watched as the TARDIS was destroyed on the screen, Donna and the Echo inside it.

The Red Dalek turned to the Doctor. "The TARDIS has been destroyed. Now tell me Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"

Clara looked up at him, staring at the blank space. He looked empty. "Yeah" he replied.

"Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you" the Dalek said.

"Yeah?" Jack said, stepping forward. His eyes were alight with anger. He pulled a revolver out his pocket. "Feel this" He shot at the Dalek, but with a single zap of its gun Jack lay dead at their feet.

"Jack. Oh my God!" Rose knelt beside him in horror.

"Rose, leave him" the Doctor said, pulling her away.

"They killed him"

"I know." The Doctor said soothingly "I'm sorry."

"Escort them to the Vault" the Red Dalek ordered. "They are the playthings of Davros now"

They were lead down to the Vault, to where Davros was waiting for them. After threatening to physically extract Clara from the Doctor's side did they finally stand apart.

"Activate holding cells" three spotlights shone down on Clara, Rose and the Doctor. "Excellent. Even when powerless a Time-Lord is best contained."

"Still scared of me then?" The Doctor asked as Davros wheeled in front of them.

"It is time we talked Doctor" Davros ignored the question "After so very long"

"No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison. You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?" The Doctor leered at Davros.

"We have an arrangement" he replied stiffly.

"No, no, no, no, no. No, I've got the word. You're the Dalek's pet!" The Doctor could have almost laughed.

"So very full of fire is he not?" Davros turned to Clara "And to think..." He trailed off, moving closer to stare intently at her face "But no... I know that face... After so long"

"Not long enough" Clara muttered.

"But yes. It is you. The Impossible Girl" Davros laughed "Will he leave you behind once more? Allow you to rot and burn and scream before his very eyes and not even notice?"

"Leave her alone" the Doctor ordered fiercely.

"She is mine" Davros turned to him "they both are. To do as I please with"

"Then why are we still alive?" Rose asked.

"You must be here. It was foretold. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan." Davros said.

"So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames." They looked at the disgusting looking thing raised above.

"What is that thing?" Rose asked.

"You've met before. The last of the Cult of Skaro. But it flew into the Time War, unprotected." The Doctor said.

"Caan did more than that. He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. Both of you. And her" he fixed his eyes on Clara, looking even more sinister if possible.

"This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die." Caan laughed his horribly high pitched cackle.

"Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna? Why did the Tardis door close? Tell me!" The Doctor demanded.

"Oh, that's it. The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is. Why so shy?" Davros taunted "Show your companions. Show them your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that too."

"I have seen. At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed." Caan exclaimed.

"What does that mean?"

"We will discover it together. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins." Davros laughed.

"Testing of what?"

"The Reality bomb." His expression darkened "Behold. The apotheosis of my genius" he switched the screen on to show the holding area, full of humans. They watched the ray appear and the Doctor realised what it was.

"That's Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string. No, Davros. Davros, you can't! You can't! No!" He yelled. Not that it helped. They watched as the people atomised from the head downwards.

"Doctor, what happened?" Rose asked.

"Electrical energy" Clara whispered, the true horror dawning on her. "Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That was just in those people but full transmission..." She choked on the very horror of it.

"The stars are going out." Rose said in realisation.

"The twenty seven planets. They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength." The Doctor looked sickened.

"Across the entire universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!" He finished his gleeful speech with a manic shriek.

There was not much to do but wait, and no one could see a way out. But then five or so minutes later the screen zapped up and Clara looked up to see the face of the one and only Martha Jones.

"This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat. Can you hear me?" She said.

"Put us through!" Clara yelled immediately, wincing as the Dalek part of her brain glitched in protest.

"It begins as Dalek Caan foretold" Davros said gleefully.

"The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die" Caan laughed.

"Stop saying that!" The Doctor snapped, casting a panicked side glance at Clara. "Put me through!"

"Doctor!" Martha said the minute they were through "I'm sorry! I had to!"

"Oh but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent."

Martha showed the Daleks the Osterhagen key, threatening to make the twenty-seven planets twenty-six by destroying the earth which Clara did not see as a viable option. Then Jack, Mickey, Sarah-Jane and Jackie appeared, threatening to blow the Crucible up with a warp star. Clara didn't like that idea much either. Neither did the Doctor apparently.

"Now that's what I call a ransom!" Rose said. "Doctor?"

"And the prophecy unfolds" Davros rolled forwards. "The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people And you fashion them into weapons."

"It's not true!" Clara screamed at him. She looked at her Doctor, pleading in her eyes "you'd never make a weapon"

"Oh really" the Doctor gave a hollow laugh "look at you. Split into a million versions of yourself to save me. And in the end what did you become? The greatest warrior in the universe."

Clara couldn't find an argument, it died in her throat. Davros continued. "Behold your Children of Time. Transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."

"They're trying to help." The Doctor argued feebly.

"Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network."

"Who was that?" The Doctor frowned.

"Harriet Jones." Rose said, her voice catching "She gave her life to get you here."

"How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name?" Clara watched the Doctors face as he thought of the hundreds of people who had given their lives. "The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."

Suddenly the transmat snatched the others from their locations and dropped them in the vault. "Guard them! On your knees, all of you. Surrender!" Davros ordered.

"Do as he says!" The Doctor warned.

"Mum I told you not to" Rose said weekly, looking at Jackie.

"I know but I couldn't leave you" she protested.

Davros smiled sinisterly. "The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!"

"You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!" The Doctor pleaded.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha! Nothing can stop the detonation. Nothing and no one!" Davros laughed.

But then... The wheezing noise of the TARDIS filled the room.

"But that's" the Doctor was stunned.

"Impossible" hissed Davros.

The TARDIS materialised in the corner and they all watched in shock as the Doctor, another Doctor, raced out with a strange gun like gizmo.

"Brilliant!" Exclaimed Jack with a laugh.

The other Doctor ran across the floor, but as the Doctor shouted "Don't!" Davros zapped him, causing him to drop the gizmo.

"Activate holding cell" called Davros, and the other Doctor was also trapped.

Donna raced out of the TARDIS behind him, with the other Clara. She scooped the thing up and looked around. "Doctor! I've got it. But I don't know what to do!" She yelled. Davros zapped her, sending her flying backwards, and trapped the echo in the holding cell before they destroyed the weapon.

"Why is there two of you?" Clara asked.

"Human biological metacrisis." The Doctor said "Never mind that. Now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb."

"Stand witness, Time Lord. Stand witness, humans. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and. Oh. The end of the universe has come." Davros cackled.

The Supreme Dalek began to count down, but Clara's eyes were fixed on Donna. She watched her, a tiny smirk forming on her face. The Dalek reached zero, and an alarm sounded.

"Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop. That button there." Donna pressed a button on the panel she was thrown against while the others stared. The Daleks went nuts.

"Donna you can't change a plug!" The Doctor pointed out in confusion.

"You wanna bet Time Boy?" Donna grinned.

"You'll suffer for this!" Davros growled, pointed his zapper at her. She lifted a lever and the charge traveled up her arm and he screeched in pain.

"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion." Donna said simply. She continued to work the controls, rendering the Daleks weapons non-functional. "Phwor. Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix."

"How did you work that out? You're-" the Doctor stared at her completely lost.

"Time Lord. Part Time Lord." The metacrisis grinned.

"Part human. Oh, yes. That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half Doctor, half Donna." Donna finished with a grin.

"The Doctor Donna." Clara exclaimed "Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The Doctor Donna."

"Holding cells deactivated. And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work." Donna ordered, and they were all free.

"Stop them! Get them away from the controls." Davros screeched, sending the Daleks trundling towards them.

"And spin." Donna laughed, flicking a switch. The Daleks began to spin round and round on the spot.

"Help me. Help me" they cried mechanically. Clara doubled over laughing.

"And the other way" Donna announced.

"What did you do?" The metacrisis asked with glee.

"Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator." Donna said with a smirk.

"But that's brilliant!" The metacrisis said.

"Why did we never think of that?" The Doctor asked.

"Because you two were just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. I can think of ideas you two couldn't dream of in a million years. Ah, the universe has been waiting for me." Donna exclaimed with total delight. "Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship." She held up her hand, waving her fingers "Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute."

"Ha!" The metacrisis laughed.

Jack raced into the TARDIS to retrieve the guns while Donna and the Doctors worked on sending the planets home. The others jumped on their feet and began to handle the Daleks.

Clara ran up to the three Doctors who were sending the planets home and said "So what exactly happened?"

Donna pointed to the Doctor and said "He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand. I touched the hand, and he" she pointed to the metacrisis "grew out of that but that fed back into me. But, it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life. Thank you, Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind." Her smile was so wide it looked painful.

"So there's three of you?" Sarah-Jane asked.

"Three Doctors?" Rose echoed.

"I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now." Jack smirked and Clara hit him.

"You're so unique the timelines were converging on you. Human being with a Time Lord brain." The Doctor said in awe.

"But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?" Davros croaked.

"Oh, I think he did. Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time." The Doctor said.

"This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor." Caan said.

"You betrayed the Daleks." Davros screamed.

"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, no more!" Caan said.

**"**Heads up!" Jack said as the Supreme Dalek descended into the Vault.

"Davros, you have betrayed us." It said.

"It was Dalek Caan." Davros protested.

"The Vault will be purged. You will all be exterminated." The Supreme Dalek zapped the control panel.

"Like I was saying," Jack stepped forward "feel this!" He fired a pulse from his gun and the Supreme Dalek was obliterated. Clara laughed.

"Oh, we've lost the magnetron. And there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one." The Doctor grinned "But we can use the Tardis." He ran into his beloved time machine.

"Holding Earth stability. Maintaining atmospheric shell." The metacrisis said.

"The prophecy must complete." Caan said.

"Don't listen to him." Screamed Davros.

"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor."

"He's right. Because with or without a Reality bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped." The metacrisis said. Clara turned to him in horror.

"Just, just wait for the Doctor." Donna said nervously.

"I am the Doctor." He said fiercely "Maximising Dalekanium power feeds. Blasting them back!" He flipped the switch as Clara screamed,

"No!" She looked around her as the Daleks began to explode. Then her mind exploded in pain and she collapsed to the floor.

"Clara!" Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha and Jack ran to her as the Doctor appeared out of the TARDIS.

"What have you done?" He demanded angrily as he looked at the exploding Daleks and at where Jack had passed his gun to Rose and was carrying Clara as she convulsed in pain.

"Fulfilling the prophecy." The metacrisis Doctor said firmly.

**"**Do you know what you've done?" The Doctor asked aghast as he pointed his sonic at Clara so she went limp and her eyes fluttered open. Jack set her on her feet. "Now get in the Tardis! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run!" He ordered. "In! In! In! In!"

"Sarah Jane! Rose! Clara.2! Jackie! Jack! Clara! Mickey!" The metacrisis said their names as they raced passed him into the TARDIS.

Once inside they turned to Clara. "What was that?" Rose asked.

"This idiot!" Clara snarled as she pointed to the metacrisis "Didn't think through the fact that annihilating the Daleks would include this one" she pointed to herself while the metacrisis looked horrified at himself. "But the Doctor shut me down. Regeneration energy will sort me out" Clara lied as the Doctor came racing inside.

"And off we go!" He set the TARDIS into flight as the Crucible exploded behind them.

"But what about the Earth? It's stuck in the wrong part of space." Sarah Jane said.

"I'm on it. Torchwood Hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?" The Doctor called.

Gwen Cooper's voice came through and said "Loud and clear." She appeared on the scanner "Is Jack there?"

"Can't get rid of him. Jack, what's her name?" The Doctor asked.

"Gwen Cooper."

"Tell me, Gwen Cooper, Are you from an old Cardiff family?" The Doctor asked as Rose squeezed in beside him.

"Yes, all the way back to the eighteen hundreds." Gwen replied in confusion.

**"**Ah, thought so. Spatial genetic multiplicity." The Doctor realised, grinning at Rose. "Yeah, it's a funny old world. Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator. Send all the power to me."

**"**Doing it now, sir." Ianto said.

"What's that for?" Donna asked.

"It's a tow rope. Now then. Sarah, what was your son's name?" The Doctor asked Sarah Jane.

"Luke. He's called Luke. And the computer's called Mister Smith." Sarah Jane replied desperately.

"Calling Luke and Mister Smith." The Doctor said "This is the Doctor. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg."

"Is Mum there?" A young boys voice came through.

**"**Oh, she's fine and dandy." The Doctor grinned while Sarah Jane rejoiced. "Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the Tardis. You got that?"

"I regret I will need remote access to Tardis base code numerals." The computer said.

"Oh, blimey, that's going to take a while." The Doctor groaned, but Sarah Jane pushed him out the way.

"No, no, no. Let me. K9, out you come!" She called.

**"**Affirmative, Mistress." The voice of the funny metal dog came through.

"Oh! Oh ho! Oh, good dog!" The Doctor said "K9, give Mister Smith the base code."

**"**Master." K9 said in acknowledgement "Tardis base code now being process is simple."

"Now then, you lot." The Doctor jumped into action "Sarah, hold that down. Mickey, you hold that. Because you know why this Tardis always is always rattling about the place? Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed. Martha, keep that level. But not any more. Jack, there you go. Steady that. Now we can fly this thing. No, Jackie. No, no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back. Like it's meant to be flown. We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the Tardis by Mister Smith, and we're going to fly Planet Earth back home. Right then." He looked around the group looking very pleased with himself as Clara and the Metacrisis came into a position to help fly "Off we go."

They pulled the Earth out of the Medusa Cascade and back to its home in the universe, next to the moon. They all began to laugh and cheer and celebrate, hugging each other. Then they flew below and landed in a park. They dropped Martha and Mickey and Jack and Sarah Jane home and then, to Bad Wolf Bay.

The metacrisis and Jackie stepped out of the TARDIS, followed by everyone else.

"You're back home." The Doctor said. Rose smiled and hugged him before stepping back with her mother.

"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened. It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now." Donna grinned.

Clara's echo was not happy "No, but I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now." She said "I love you. I want to be with you."

"We saved the universe, but at a cost." Clara said from where she was leant against the TARDIS "And the cost is him." She nodded at the metacrisis "He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."

"You made me." The metacrisis pointed out.

"Exactly." The Doctor said "You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge. Remind you of someone?" He gave Rose a small smile "That's me, when we first met. And you made me better." Then he turned to the echo "He needs you. Just like I needed her"

"But it's better than that, though. Don't you see what he's trying to give you?" Donna asked "Tell her. Go on." She urged.

The metacrisis looked at Clara's echo "I look like him and I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except I've only got one heart."

"So?" She asked.

"I'm part human. Specifically, the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate." He said "not like him, or her. I've only got one life. I could spend it with you, if you want.

"We've got to go. This reality is sealing itself off for ever." The Doctor said.

The echo still looked uncertain, so Clara stepped forward. "Versions of us." She said. "The other echoes. It will take a thousand years before he will see them. And even so, we never get him. Not like I did. We also don't get to live, we never get to live. But you can do both. Live an actual life, with the Doctor by your side. Seeing you, and loving you."

The echo looked at her for a long moment, before she turned to the Doctor and kissed him. And the Doctor, Clara and Donna slipped away.

"I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just because. What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move. Can you imagine?" Donna said in complete and utter delight as the drifted. Clara and the Doctor exchanged looks.

"And how do you know that?" The Doctor asked sadly.

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine." Donna announced.

"And how does that feel?" Clara asked gently.

"Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain. You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hotbinding the fragment links and superseding the binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary." Clara winced as Donna gasped for air. She thought back to a conversation, so long ago.

_"Do you believe I'm human?" She asked, looking at him "Do you genuinely believe I'm a ordinary human girl, not some trap for you or a evil alien?"_

_The Doctor sighed. "I don't want to believe" he said "but Daleks don't just assume people as one of their own, and ordinary humans don't know the things you do. They can't. It would be like putting a time lords mind in a humans body, it would burn up."_

_There mind would burn. _

"I'm fine." Donna said "Nah, never mind Felspoon. You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester. Charlie Brown. No, he's fiction. Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton." This time it hurt and she clutched her head "Oh, my God."

"Do you know what's happening?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah." Donna resigned.

"There's never been a human Time Lord metacrisis before now. And you know why." The Doctor said.

"Because there can't be." Her eyes filled with tears. "I want to stay."

"Look at me. Donna, look at me." Clara whispered, stepping in her path.

"I was going to be with you two forever." She sobbed.

"I know." Clara soothed.

"The rest of my life, travelling in the Tardis. The Doctor Donna. No. Oh my god. I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back." She pleaded, trying to step away from them.

"Donna. Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry. But we had the best of times." The Doctor said.

"No."

"The best. Goodbye." Clara finished, and then she pressed her fingers to Donna's temple, removing all the memories. She collapsed forward into the Doctors waiting arms.

He took her home, but Clara couldn't face it and she stayed in the TARDIS. She gently traced the wires in her arms, fighting back a scream. She didn't want this. She couldn't hurt him. Not when he had just lost Donna, and said goodbye to so many others. But she had to.

He came in through the door a while later, shutting it behind him. He was soaking wet, and his face was sad. So sad.

"So" he said across the console room "And now you?"

Clara tried to smile but the tears escaped. "I think we've reached the end"

**Please review!**


	35. Goodbye

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 35

_"So" he said across the console room "And now you?"_

_ Clara tried to smile but the tears escaped. "I think we've reached the end"_

The Doctor's hearts broke on his face as he took a step towards her. She wasn't crying properly, but the tears were shining on her cheeks and her face was sketched with sadness. "Why?" He whispered in a small voice, fighting back the tears.

"I'm dying" she said, with a funny laugh. "I'm going to die Doctor. Nothing can save me now." She said the words so lightly, as though she were merely stating the weather, but still they hung in the air between them. She had a desperate urge to be near him, to feel him, smell him, breathe him and be absolutely sure it was all real before she lost him forever.

"That freeze I put on you, shutting down the Dalek" he desperately came to her side and took her small hands in his own, pleading. "We can extend it. Find a way to make it permanent. It can be okay" but Clara shook her head, placing her hand on his cheek. He stared into her eyes, which were the golden brown they'd been when her met her. "Please" he said in a small broken voice "I need you. I can't" he broke off with a sort of strangled sob "I've murdered you"

Clara shook her head, tears pouring completely freely. "No" she said "Never. It's not the Dalek. I'm dying anyway. This body can't survive."

He looked at her, his eyes burning. Clara stared back, unsure of what to do or say. But there was nothing either of them could've said to make the pain numb slightly. Then he pulled her towards him and kissed her. Clara felt the world fall beneath her feet and stars dance before her eyes and all the love he felt for her, the guilt he felt for her sacrifices and the eternal gratitude for them.

They eventually pulled apart and Clara tried to smile. "Please" he whispered, stroking some of her hair behind her ear. "I don't want you to leave me"

"Hush now" she said, stroking the side of his face. "I'll never be too far away. I'll always be near, always be watching. I always have been." He pulled her close and she buried her face in his shoulder and he rested his chin on her head. "Besides" she said as she looked up at him "I'm coming. So soon. In a long time but a lot sooner then you think. And yes I'll be a little different. But I'll still be Clara Oswald. Well" she laughed "after a while I will be."

"But I don't want her" the Doctor mumbled "I want you"

"I know" she sobbed "and I want you. I want to stay forever in this snog box and I want to see every star, every planet, every galaxy" he gently wiped away a tear on her cheek with his thumb.

"Then please" he whispered again.

"But we can't" Clara choked "we can't. We never could. We never... We never should have." He would have recoiled in horror at these words if he wasn't so desperate to cling to her, to not lose her. "Because if you don't leave me, and go meet the real Clara Oswald, then I won't ever have existed. And you'll be destroyed"

"Time can be rewritten" the Doctor insisted desperately, cupping her face.

"No" Clara shook her head "Not this. Not all of your time. Like River said, don't you dare."

He kissed her again, clinging to the precious final moments he had with her. Because he would make them feel endless, if they would really be his last. He looked down at her face, her beautiful face and whispered her name, pressing his forehead to hers. Searing her in both his hearts. And she whispered his own name, his true name, and for a moment they let go of everything, where they were and who they were and what they had done. And for a shining second she let him remember, that they were children together long ago, chasing carelessly through the red grass on Gallifrey the mountains shining above her.

There wasn't really anything left for them to say. They just wanted to freeze time. Stay together, in love.

Clara felt the time stream pull at her, and reluctantly dragged them from their moment. She looked at him, and realised she'd have to hurt him more, for a few final minutes

"I love you" he whispered. And she nodded, unable to say anything. "I don't know how I'll- I need you Clara. I can't keep going without you"

She swallowed, summoned all her strength and will power and somehow managed to say it. "Well, you won't have to"

He looked at her, uncertainty and dread in his eyes. "Why not?" He asked slowly. Clara took a step back and a deep breath. She fought back the tears and sealed her heart.

"You and me should never have done this. Travelled together. We've screwed up the timelines" the Doctor narrowed his eyes as she spoke. "And now I have to fix it. Time can't be rewritten but it can be restored. I used the TARDIS to do it. Nobody-" she choked on the words "nobody remembers me anymore"

"What?" The Doctor asked. "Clara no-"

"And now it's just you. I just have to change your memory." Clara cut him off, unable to look into his eyes.

"No" he breathed. Then he shouted "I won't let you" his voice lost its strength as he said "I won't let you"

"It's okay. Painless" Clara couldn't stop the tears now "it will be like I never existed. I'll make it so you went back for Rose Tyler. Until you lost her in the parallel universe. Then just you and Martha and you and Donna. No me. Nothing to lose. No pain"

"I'd sooner feel the pain then forget you" the Doctor spat. And Clara smiled.

"It's okay." She said between her tears and sobs, the sound of three hearts breaking filling the silent and empty console room. "It's going to be okay"

The Doctor tried to fight it as she brought her fingers to his temples. She stopped for a moment, just to stare at him. And he stared back. His eyes betrayed the hundreds of years he'd lived, the horror of the time war, the pain. And every wonderful star, planet and galaxy he had ever been to, all the incredible things he had seen and the amazing people had met. And in her eyes shone every life she had lived, millions of different versions of herself throughout all of time and space, each one slightly different but all of them her. It would always be her. She would always be there, he just wouldn't remember.

Although he hated it with every fibre of himself, the Doctor knew he had to forget. Or he would always be searching for her. Desperate to save her and protect her. He would always owe it too her. For a moment it had seemed as though she was the only one in the universe capable of promising him forever. But she had been stolen from him, because no matter how much he gave to the universe they could never give him that in return. She was the only one in the universe impossible for him to save.

"It will still be real" she promised in a broken whisper as she drew all her remaining courage "No one will remember, but it will all still have happened. Everything we did"

He smiled softly and stole one last kiss from her. She smelt faintly of cherries and she tasted slightly salty from her tears. But she was his. And he couldn't bare to let her go.

Then she dove into his memory.

He felt it, all their adventures they'd had, her being taken from them, so it was just him and Donna and just him and Martha. They changed, insignificantly, but still they changed as she faded from them. Then the earlier ones, she disappeared and knew memories formed, falling in love with softer pink and yellow girl, losing her in the Battle of Canary Warf. Clara Oswald faded from them all, until all that was left was a blurry night in a bar on Christmas night, where that witty, beautiful, Impossible Girl had told him to get a grip and go join Rose Tyler and her family for Christmas dinner. It was tucked away at the back of his mind, buried and forgotten in its considered unimportance.

Then the others. Memories they'd made together that couldn't be changed, that she wouldn't change to include someone else. Because they were their's, and Clara wouldn't have him share them with anybody else. The frosted planet, dancing at Derillium, twirling around and kissing in the console room. Every stupid, shining special moment they had ever shared she stole from him, no matter how much it hurt her.

Until finally there was nothing left. She held her fingers to his temples and he looked down at her, with no memories or ideas of who this girl was or where she had come from, only the ache in his chest telling him that he loved her more then anything in the universe. And before she took that from him. Before she took the love and pain away she looked up at her with a sad smile and murmured

"Run." She considered the next part of the sentence, wondering if it was wise considering, but decided if she were to have any hope, then she had to. "Run you clever boy. And remember me"

Then the Doctor felt the overwhelmingly strong and confusing emotions leave him, and the Impossible Girl dissolved into golden energy and returned to the time-stream, where she belonged.

* * *

The Doctor slumped forwards, thankfully managing to catch himself on the console. He straightened, waiting for the room to come back into focus, before looking around him in confusion. He felt strange. Like he was missing something blatantly obvious that should be right in front of him, but he couldn't think for the life of him what it was. There was also a lingering sadness in his chest, that he couldn't quite place. But nothing had made sense today. It hadn't been a good day

"Donna Noble" he sighed, setting the TARDIS into flight "God how I miss you already"

It didn't seem to quite explain it, but it had been a long day, and he didn't feel like dwelling on it. So he pushed it to the back of his mind, and set off to travel alone.

**Please Review! This is not the end. I'm going to go on to do the Clara episodes right up to the Day of the Doctor. I'm not sure if I'll have him ever remember though. Tell me your thoughts, try not to hate me. **


	36. The Voice

**Allons-y Impossible Girl**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who**

Chapter 36

The voice. It came blasting through the transmit from the centre of the Dalek Asylum, carrying through the Parliament of the Daleks after Carmen. The sound of it was so warm, so comforting, so achingly familiar and it filled him with an unexplained, wonderful, hopeful feeling.

"Hello. Are you real? Actually, properly real?"

The very sound of it just made everything seem to stop for a minutes, as his enormous mind tried to comprehend that he was actually hearing it. Because his brain was saying it was impossible, yet the reason (and awkwardly enough the reasons why in fact it was entirely possible), was locked away. His mind searched deep into it's darkest, dustiest corners for the answers, only the moment he felt as though he was getting close his thoughts were somewhat redirected. His thoughts vaguely drifted to the Master and the horrible year that never was, but he couldn't think why. All his memories were strangely clouded, as though they were incomplete if he really thought about it. Must be old age, he thought gloomily to himself.

He laughed. "Confirmed, actually properly real."

"Oswin Oswald, junior entertainment manager, starship Alaska. Current status, crashed and shipwrecked somewhere… Not nice. Been here a year, rest of the crew missing, provisions good but keen to move on"

The Doctor inwardly cringed. Oswin. It was pretty, probably suited her but he didn't want to call her Oswin. He had preferred…

He shook himself out of his thoughts as he filled with concern for this disembodied voice he was feeling far too much about.

"A year?" He asked. "Are you ok? Are you under attack?"

"There are some local life forms" her voice tightened in a horribly familiar way, betraying her disgust and anger and the finest bit of fear.

"Do you know what those life forms are?" The Doctor leaned closer to the console from where her voice was sounding, as though he could fall right through the connection to comfort her, whoever she was.

"I know a Dalek when I hear one yeah" she spat the name in complete disgust and an odd sort of self loathing.

"What have you been doing, on your own against the Daleks for a year?" He asked in a low voice, as though he was fearing the answer.

There was a pause. Then

"Making soufflés?" She said lightly.

And he laughed, because once she said it he was filled with the most wonderfully warm feeling, as though he had remembered a favourite, perfect moment. Only there was no memory. Not one that occurred anyhow.

"Soufflés against the Daleks" he chuckled, deciding this was a very her thing to do, although frankly he wasn't really in a position to make that sort of decision considering he'd never met her or even seen her face. He only knew her voice, yet this really seemed to be enough. He could read into more then he had ever before. Then something occurred to him, accompanied by an unidentifiable feeling of dread and dull acceptance. "Where do you get the milk?"

The Daleks interrupted, but the Doctor had silently vowed to himself the moment he first heard her voice that he was going to rescue her from the wretched asylum, because she deserved a hundred times better. Anyone would of course, but he couldn't escape the underlying guilt that said he wouldn't make his mind up like that for just anyone.

He couldn't call her Oswin, something in him simply wouldn't, like it carried some hidden sort of pain. So he settled for Soufflé girl, enjoying the comforting absent memories that came with the newly invented name. Nothing about this made much (well, any) sense, but something in him said he was probably better off not caring.

* * *

Oswin knew something was wrong as she saw the look on his face on the screen. He was looking around him with the saddest, most pained expression on his face, one that made her heart break.

"Oswin, we have a problem." He said.

"No, we don't." She insisted, her grin fixing to her face. Because she's though of everything and this man, this crazy, funny, absolutely wonderful man was going to save her from her horrible reality. "Don't even say that. Joined the Alaska to see the universe, ended up stuck in a shipwreck first time out. Rescue me, chin boy, and show me the stars." She jumped forward and gazed at him through the screen.

He didn't reply, only looked around him with that awful expression that made fear grip her heart and that tiny twinge of doubt sing at the back of her mind. Finally he asked "Does it look real to you?"

"Does what look real?" She asked, the tiny shred of doubt growing very slightly. Fear silenced it, but it was still there.

"Where you are right now." He said "Does it seem real?"

"It is real." She insisted. Of course it was real. It had to be. Because if it wasn't then… The doubt in her mind grew a little larger.

"It's a dream, Oswin. You dreamed it for yourself because the truth was too terrible." He sounded so defeated, so broken, as though he could truly hate himself for this. But he had never met her, he couldn't possibly have felt something like that for a voice coming out of a machine. But maybe it wasn't just that, but rather that he would not see her face, not really know if she was… But why wouldn't he see her face. She was, she had to be. The doubt defeated the determination and clouded her mind.

"Where am I?" She asked fearfully. "Where am I? Where am I?"

"Because you are a Dalek." He spat in disgust, but it didn't seem to be directed at her. Still, at these words, anger won.

"I am not a Dalek. I am not a Dalek!" She screamed insistently "I'm human." She had to be. She couldn't be a creature he despised. Who despised him. She had to be flesh and blood and be able to run with him, dance with him, hold his hand and never let go.

"You were human when you crashed here. It was you who climbed out of the pod. That was your ladder." As he spoke she could remember it, as though it were a dream. The most terrible nightmare that left her screaming and sweating and horribly sick when she woke. Only she wouldn't wake up. She wouldn't run to the bathroom and moments later have him wrapping his arms around her and wiping away her tears. "Oswin, I am so sorry, but you are a Dalek. The milk, Oswin. The milk and the eggs for the soufflés. Where, where did it all come from?" She thought over his question, foreign memories swimming to the surface along with the true horror of the situation. Her, but not her with him, but not quite him. And as reality set in with the rage, so did the jealousy. Because that girl, that Oswin but not Oswin in the hundreds of confusing memories was Dalek. But she was human. And she held his hand and danced with him and kissed and loved him. And now she couldn't. She could never. And she couldn't help think that if the Doctor had been the skinny guy in the suit with the wonderful hair then instead of this man with the bow tie and the big chin then she might not be here. If he could remember her, like he should have if he truly loved her, then he would try harder to save her. Her anger burned through her, and the room began to fade as the Dalek came alive.

"Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Ster. Min. Are. Eggs ster min ate. Eggsterminate. Exterminate"

But then he was shouting and backed against the wall and suddenly Oswin was back in the ship, collapsed against the door and sobbing. Sobbing for the loss of her humanity, for doing what the echoes never ever did and turning against him. For not being the Clara/Oswin bar maid he loved, and for him not knowing that he loved her. Slowly, but not painfully, the memories slipped in. That girl had been a Dalek as well, she'd been a lot of things, but she had used the gun that ejected from her palm. A brief memory of the beam shooting across the room in a fit of rage, narrowly missing that twisted childhood friend. And Oswin realised not even that one, the one with a Time-Lord mind and his complete love and acceptance had understood the part of her that hated him so much. Because he was good. Surely.

"Why do they hate you so much? They hate you so much. Why?" She asked him.

"I fought them many, many times." He sighed heavily. And he was good, Oswin realised. Despite the destruction he had brought them, he brought himself regret.

"We have grown stronger in fear of you." She commented. Clara had known that too, but had shut it out. Because she had eventually failed to do what she was meant to. She didn't need persuading he was good. And Oswin had to accept that she couldn't have what Clara had had.

"I know. I tried to stop." He said. And he meant it. Which made Oswin sure she was not a Dalek. Because she could forgive him, and still love him, even though she would do her job and stay and burn while his love for the two humans back there overpowered his forgotten and buried love for her.

"Then run." She said, approaching her keyboard and removing the force field "I've taken down the forcefield. "The Daleks above have begun their attack. Run!"

"Oswin, are you?" He looked astounded, and she liked to imagine the small part of him that saw them recognised her devotion and sacrifice in that moment.

"I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks and I am Human! Remember me." She said, because that was who she would be, and although he would leave her where the othe would have taken Clara, he would remember her, where he didn't remember the others.

She watched him race through the wreckage as the asylum began to burn around him and leant back in her flight chair. The time stream pulled at her, ready to break her away now her job was done, so she smiled and said her final words, knowing that although he would not know why, they would strike a chord in both the Doctor's hearts and make him sure, that even if only for a slightest moment back there, something in him loved her.

And Oswin could live, or rather not live, with that. Because while she wished she could have had what barmaid Clara had had with the tenth Doctor, ultimately they were the same. And finally he had seen them.

**Please Review!**


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